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Pride
of The Yankees
Author and former bat boy Ray Negron revels
in the history of the all-American game and brings some legends
of baseball to the next generation.
By Dave Gil de Rubio
It’s a big night for Ray Negron at New York
City’s Cutting Room. He’s the host of a press conference
that’s being held to announce the live action movie predominantly
based on Negron’s children’s book, One Last Time: Good-Bye
to Yankee Stadium.
The film’s director, former teen heartthrob Robbie Benson,
is making his way through a teeming crowd whose ranks include Nancy
Newman of the YES Network, New York sportscaster Scott Clark and
Bob Sheppard, longtime stadium announcer for the New York Yankees.
Rumors of an appearance by Bernie Williams have the crowd buzzing,
and later, swarming around the former Bronx Bomber centerfielder
when he arrives before the main festivities. But it’s all
fitting given how intertwined Negron’s life has been with
the Yankees, dating back to when the then 16-year-old Bronx native
was personally pinched by the team’s new owner George Steinbrenner
for spraying graffiti on a stadium wall and made to work off his
debt.
Since that fateful day in 1973, Negron not only became a confidant
for the likes of Steinbrenner, the late Billy Martin and Reggie
Jackson during those late ‘70s championship years, but his
on-again, off-again relationship with the team always found him
being wooed back by Steinbrenner himself.
Sporting a non-descript baseball cap and gray jacket, Negron floats
through the crowd, flashing a genuine smile and a few words for
a seemingly endless stream of people who greet him. When congratulated
on the turnout and how well the evening is going, he gives a nervous
grin before replying, “I hope you’re right.” But
for whatever uncertainty he might have, an immediate ease falls
over him whenever he crosses paths with the handful of children
in attendance. Squatting down and making eye contact, Negron asks
questions, tousles some hair and emits a genuine vibe of interest.
All of which makes sense given hat his first two children’s
books, 2006’s The Boy of Steel: A Baseball Dream Come True
and 2007’s Greatest Story Never Told: The Babe and Jackie,
were New York Times bestsellers. He obviously connects with kids.
The whimsy and imagination Negron had as a 10-year-old sneaking
into Yankee Stadium during a 1967 Minnesota Twins game to watch
his hero Mickey Mantle carries over into his books. An old storage
room is used as a time machine for the young protagonists and the
semi-fictional bat boy named Ray takes his charges on trips to meet
historic baseball legends including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie
Robinson and Roberto Clemente.
It’s this kind of sentiment and fantastical element that’s
made a fan of Laura Seeley, the illustrator for all three books.
“One of the things I admire about Ray is that he was a tough
street kid and he just has heart—and that’s what these
books address,” she says. “The idea of fighting to win
and achieve, whatever you set out to do.”
At the old Yankee Stadium the prior week, a steady stream visitors
and employees stream in and out of the reception area to shake hands
with Negron, a standout shortstop in high school who was a second
round draft pick for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1975. Rather than
head to the corporate offices for our sit-down, Negron instead gives
an impromptu tour. Unerringly, he glides through the stadium’s
innards with the confidence and bearing of a former athlete and
someone intimately comfortable with his surroundings. Negron seems
to know all he encounters, regardless of their place in the team
hierarchy. When he isn’t greeting one of the many security
guards or joking around with a couple of Yankees execs, Negron leans
over a group of women in the employee dining room, asking to send
regards to a mutual acquaintance.
Asked how he feels about the team’s newly constructed digs,
Negron confesses to having mixed feelings. “I understand the
reasons behind why a new Yankee Stadium is being built, but having
spent so much of my life practically growing up in the old stadium,
I still have some pretty deep attachments to this place.”
Negron shows me the actual storage space that inspired his storytelling
device, an area where Gehrig was rumored to meditate during his
battle from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease that came
to bear his name. When mention is made of George Steinbrenner ceding
control over the Yankees and what Negron’s future with the
team might be, he shares his enduring love for the man they call
the Boss. “I became George’s eyes and ears in ’98
and he’s one of the funniest men I’ve ever known. I’ve
always been proud of that relationship I have with him and I miss
that very dearly,” he says.
Even though Negron’s turn as a children’s book author
is recent, his interest in connecting with a younger generation
stems back to his first go-round with the Yankees. “The inspiration
for my first book comes from my years of going to hospitals and
schools to visit kids,” he explains. “The first time
I did that was back in 1979, with [current New York Mets general
manager] Omar Minaya and Dave Valle of the Seattle Mariners, friends
of mine and fellow draftees who I played ball with.” Negron’s
visits have been a constant for him, both during his time with and
apart from the Yankees. It’s something he’s done working
as a team counselor for the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers
and continues to do during his current position as personal consultant
for Steinbrenner and director of community relations for Spalding.
With his brand of baseball-themed philanthropy, Negron has used
proceeds from the sales of his books to fight juvenile diabetes
and benefit cancer research and education through the Dewayne Murcer
Foundation. Given his efforts, he has received a slew of awards
from organizations ranging from the Bronx Chamber of Commerce and
National Conference of Puerto Rican Women, to Promesa and the North
Shore Family & Child Guidance Center. For the father of four,
it’s personal.
“I write for kids from the standpoint of my love of children,”
he says. “It’s all about doing what you’re supposed
to do when you’re fortunate. Then as it is now, my message
has always been about telling kids to do the right thing.”
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