Rainiers jersey auction helps outfit those in real need

Guys were flying all over the field, making dramatic stops and great slides. The Rainiers' man on the pitcher's mound was getting a standing ovation. And the baseball game had not even started yet.

The Colorado Springs Sky Sox were in town, but on July 3 at Cheney Stadium, baseball shared the evening with an Independence Day fireworks show and other special attractions. Before the game, skydivers dropped out of the sky onto the field in colorful parachutes and executed landings that ranged from masterful to interesting. The team's popular radio announcer, Mike Curto, always both masterful and interesting, was presented with a framed, signed Rainiers jersey by manager Daren Brown. Curto's 10 years of service was saluted by the largest crowd of the season and by club president Aaron Artman and the entire staff of the Rainiers front office, which formed a long line along the first-base line for handshakes and embraces.

But another special event was occurring on the concourse behind the stadium - an auction of Rainiers jerseys to benefit the Limbs for Life Foundation, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to providing prosthetic care for people who cannot otherwise afford it. Right alongside the vendors selling hats, shirts, sausages, sodas, beer - all the regular baseball stuff - a long table stood with a department-store type display of a red, white and blue Rainiers jersey, one of more than 30 such jerseys that were being auctioned off to the highest bidders, with the proceeds going to people who literally need arms and legs.

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