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After neatly packaging their uniforms for next season’s players, the Cardinals joined freshman Billy Cook, 15, in signing his 7,000th baseball — donated by Head Coach Kris Izzo — for troops overseas.
Monday's signing served as the Cardinals' final minutes together this season.
“It was a really cool moment,” Cook said. “This was my first year playing high school baseball so for me it was almost an honor.”
Cook started writing notes of encouragement on baseballs for troops as his Bar Mitzvah project in 2013.
The athlete reached his goal of signing 100 balls on Washington Township Day in November of that year.
Though skipping rocks has long been a time-honored tradition for soldiers — Billy's Baseballs, now a non-profit organization, has been a complete game-changer, the athlete said.
“The notes on the balls are a bonus to the actual item,” said Cook, the team's first baseman and freshman lefty pitcher. “It gives [soldiers] something to do while they’re serving the country.”
“The feedback I get from soldiers — just them telling me how grateful they are for a baseball to throw around a baseball — is the greatest thing I can receive from doing this project,” he said.
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