I wanted to take a minute to update everyone on the results of the Amazin' Avenue 2011 Charity Pledge Drive, the modest goal of which is to turn David Wright's soaring strikeout rates into something positive. Last year was our inaugural pledge drive to benefit CARE and we raised more than $2,500. If you made a pledge this year, I'm busy working my way through the submissions to calculate how much everyone pledged to contribute. If you haven't made a pledge but would like to, the form is still open, and it's never too late to give to a good cause.
The reason the tabulation is taking so long is due to the increasingly clever (and difficult to compute) proposition pledges which were made to supplement the principal pledge of $X per Wright strikeout. Some of the prop pledges we received:
* $X if Carlos Beltran is traded
* $X if Jose Reyes is traded
* $X per Jose Reyes tripe
* $X per Josh Thole home run
* $X for each game Omar Minaya isn't GM
* $X for every baserunner Carlos Beltran stranded
* $X for every time Shane Victorino was hit by a Mets pitcher
* $X for every R.A. Dickey strikeout
* $X for every day Chris Young spent on the disabled list
* $X for every day Fernando Martinez spent on the disabled list
* $X for every hit by Mike Pelfrey
* $X for every Ike Davis flippy catch
As you can imagine, some of these (the disabled list ones in particular) can take some time to work through. I hope to finish them tonight so the results can be posted tomorrow. As with last year's drive, I'll contact each person individually just to follow up with details about your pledge.
Again, I heartily encourage you to make a pledge if you haven't already done so, and I thank you and everyone who submitted a pledge originally. The creativity and generosity of this community warms even my cold, robot heart.