W e had a unique program for animal rescue, and that is we wanted to impact the lives of veterans, especially those with [post-traumatic stress].
Since day one, we’ve always felt like in fundraising we should try to offer something back rather than just, “Hey, believe in us and give us some funds.”
Five years ago, we realized that the veterans, when they come back to the world after serving our country, they had a lot of needs. … We ran into a couple of veterans at an event one time at New York City where they had their companions — rescue dogs. As soon as I got home I said, “This is our next effort. It’ll be like the classic double-play — we rescue and save another companion animal life and we’ll put them together with a veteran.”
We tried the idea of getting what we called “Leaders and Legends.” The idea would be during the day, morning and the early afternoon you’d have what’s come to be called “locker-room sessions,” 45 minutes long, where a leader or legend, or plural, would present to an intimate group say for 30 minutes. Then make it interactive, open it up for a Q&A and then at night we’d have some fun.
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La Russa is host of “Leaders and Legends,” where attendees hear speakers and then share dinner with them. Proceeds help his Animal Rescue Foundation pair rescue animals with military veterans.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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We’re getting ready to have our fifth one, and it’s really become very special. The people that attend keep attending.
[The first year’s sessions] were very heavily on sports. It’s a little bit of business. We have to make sure we stress the military because the idea was veterans. Fortunately for us, in that very first year we had Louis Zamperini, the hero of “Unbroken.”
The audience, while liking the sports angle, they just really got into a mix. We’ve gone into business. This year, for example, there’s going to be a wonderful presentation about cyber security.
We have Alison Levine, who’s climbed the highest peak in five continents. She’s an adventurer and a writer. We have Carey Lohrenz, who’s the first female to qualify to fly F-14 jets. Jose Hernandez is a Mexican immigrant who does engineering and flew in space as one of NASA’s engineers.
[Wife Elaine and I have] been married for a long time [and] have two daughters, and we’re all animal rescue fanatics.
We realized that once you preach to the choir, there are a lot of people that had an interest or affection or whatever for dogs but it wasn’t as deep-seated as ours. One of the thoughts we had was to make companions more important in the lives of people.
Our first efforts were with victims of violence like battered women and abused kids. We saw that it worked. … So we branched out into programs where we visit seniors that are with their families. Anybody hospitalized. A lot of educational programs. Special needs.
If you have a dog or a cat, they’re therapeutic. It’s that wagging tail [and] unconditional love.
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The whole postseason has been very dramatic. You go back to the division series, the [San Francisco] Giants had a really tough series with the [Chicago] Cubs. The [Cleveland] Indians, who really went undefeated through it. A lot of dramatics that built up.
I think even for a while now [baseball has] been really gaining a lot of momentum. … It’s a really good mix of established veterans who are well-known and we’ve got this amazing surge of young players like in the last half-dozen years.
I know that’s been a priority with Major League Baseball, to appeal more and more to the younger generations, make baseball part of their lives. And it’s working.
[MLB’s Play Ball initiative is] one of the real success stories. I know my association with Major League Baseball since I retired, the commissioner — whether it’s [Bud] Selig or [Rob] Manfred — they give a lot of credit to Bob Bowman and Baseball Advanced Media. They’ve made some amazing progress. It started from zero to what it is now and it’s generating a lot of enthusiasm.
There’s a lot of different iterations of how you can connect to the game. All that’s all part of this increase. As you get older, and you understand what a great game it is, you’ll pass it on to your kids.
It’s been a fascinating playoff October because when you get to this point there’s been a lot of creativity from some really outstanding managers. But if you go back during my time I saw the evolution of the starters dominating. Relievers were pitchers that weren’t good enough to start.
That evolved into clubs putting together their pitching staff giving as much attention to the end of the game as you did the beginning of the game.
What you’re seeing with these relievers pitching early could never happen in the regular season. You couldn’t maintain it. It’s just the urgency of the postseason.
My No. 1 contribution to the [Arizona Diamondbacks] organization was to impact players that were selected as potential championship players and a team to play championship baseball. The first year — 2015 — we made a lot of progress last year.
We were 25 games under .500. That haunts you. Sometimes when you struggle like we did you learn a lot about where the improvement has to come. I’m kind of anxious to be a part of taking those very painful lessons of [2016] and work to make us better in [2017].
