Yankee-related auction to benefit The Domestic Violence Project

I received an email from Tom Kackley, a Yankees minor-league clubhouse manager, about a project he's working on. Tom is holding an auction of Trenton Thunder memorabilia, as well as other teams and sports, to benefit The Domestic Violence Project. Here are the details from his email:

I've been a clubhouse manager in the minor leagues for 20 years, the last four employed by the Yankees. For many years I worked for the Canton/Akron AA affiliate of the Indians.

About a week before opening day in 1997, my wife's sister was murdered by her husband
in the most senseless, tragic act of domestic violence. For a long time it was all I could do to deal with the ramifications of this tragedy, and to do my best to raise my late sister-in-law's son.

Two years ago Phil Hughes was the most prominent player on my team in Trenton. I've never been much for collecting autographs, but toward the end of that season I figured I could ask Phil to sign a couple of balls for me that I'd auction off for the local domestic violence shelter. Phil was happy to oblidge, but about ten minutes later he came back to me saying, "Tonto, the balls are only going to bring about $50 each, but I've got some other stuff that would be pretty good."

By game time that night he had loaded up my desk with game used hats, gloves, spikes, photos...all signed. I raised a little over $2600 which at Phil's request we split between the shelter and a local Trenton youth baseball group.

Last year I collected what I could throughout the season and did the auction on Ebay, raising a little over $5000 for the shelter, much of it on some great stuff Joba signed for me.

This year I hope to do better, and am asking you to drop a plug and link for the auction on your site to help me do that. We both know that there are a lot of unscrupulous characters out there, so if you are thinking about helping me with a plug but have a concern, please let me know and I'll be happy to provide a contact with the shelter, and the Trenton Thunder who can verify that this is 100% legit.

100% of the profit from the sale of the items goes to the shelter, and each item comes with a certificate of authenticity from the Yankees AA affiliate Trenton Thunder.

Here are a few pertinent links. You may note that the team and the shelter have already posted links to the auction on their sites.

the auction page: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/clubsoulcity

Trenton Thunder: http://www.trentonthunder.com/

The Domestic Violence Project: http://domesticviolenceproj.org/

I began listing the items a few days ago and more will pop up in the next few days. The bidding will go through approximately November 20th. Among the many Trenton Thunder related items I have some great signed bats and balls from premier prospects of other teams, along with a few items signed by Duke Snider, Joba, Tino Martinez, Jim Rice, Roy White, Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel, and a beautiful bat signed by Reggie.

Check out the links and help out Tom and his project.