Published: May 01, 2008 12:58 pm         

Road trip will raise money for cancer

By ERIC AHLQVIST
Cooperstown Crier

Four college baseball players from Texas will be visiting the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Mother’s Day as part of a 5,000- mile road trip that will also include stops at 11 Major League ballparks.

The quartet is making the trip both as a college graduation trip and to raise awareness and money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The four — Aaron Bearden, Ryan VanZandt, Ethan Cravalho and Ed Hurta — will begin their journey by car this Sunday, May 4, and will be in Cooperstown next Sunday, May 11, which is also Mother’s Day. The trip will conclude May 17 after stops in Major League stadiums in Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. Bearden, who will graduate from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, this spring, said both his and Cravalho’s grandmothers suffered from breast cancer. ``When my grandmother had it, it was a hard time for my family, and especially hard for me because I am really close to her,’’ Bearden said. ``Fortunately, she survived and is a living example that the illness can be beaten.’’ The four players have a myspace page, www. myspace.com/drivingforce, with more information and links for people to donate to the Komen Foundation. They have already begun to receive national interest about their trip, and may make an appearance on the David Letterman Show while in New York next week.

In addition, Big D and Bubba, a nationally-syndicated morning radio show, have agreed to have the four call in and talk to them each morning during the trip.

Bearden and VanZandt are Texas Rangers fans, Cravalho an Atlanta Braves fan and Hurta a fan of the Houston Astros, but they are all looking forward to visiting Yankee Stadium, as it will be the last year it will be in existence. The historic stadium will be torn down after this season and the Yankees will move into a new stadium.

``The history of the place is unmatched, and to watch a game in a stadium where greats like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Joe D. played will be unreal,’’ Bearden said.