Help Japan

On a more serious note than most of my other entries, on Friday, March 11th, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit on the coast of Japan. Not even minutes after the earthquake hit, tsunami waves of up to 33 feet struck the island. This earthquake, without a doubt, had the strongest magnitude of any earthquake to ever strike Japan and amongst the top five in the world. The result of this natural disaster was not only emotional trials but physical ones, as well; after the earthquake, Japan's main island, Honshu, had moved 7.9 feet to the east. And even more astonishing was the fact that because of the earthquake, the Earth tilted on its axis almost 3.9 inches. The most recent death toll is 3,676 with nearly 8,000 people missing and 2,000 injured.

I bring this up on a sports blog because I believe everyone, whether you are an adult who doesn't watch the news, a kid who only cares about sports, someone who has been up to date on this event since it first happened, or somewhere in the middle, everyone should know about the crises that are occurring in our world, in our lifetime. If this horrid tragedy had happened to our country, we would want the rest of the world there helping us.

But in addition to that fact, I think it is very moving how sports stars around the U.S., whether from Japan or not, have extended a hand to the families who have lost everything they possess.

Whether their names are big or small, or they play an extremely popular sport or not, players around the world are contributing to the relief effort for Japan. Both the Yankees and Red Sox have already committed to pledging a combined $150,000 donation to the effort. Four Red Sox pitchers, all Japanese, stood at the gates of the ballpark collecting donations for the Red Cross, thanking fans as they contributed. Dirk Hayhurst, or also known as "The Garfoose," used his popularity and Twitter fame to get his 7,000 followers to help raise money for and with the help of Mercy Corps. American skier, Julia Mancuso, pledged half of her race earnings in an effort to launch a fundraising project. Mancuso, Akira Sasaki, Japanese skier, and Kazuko Ikeda, a former Olympian, have reached out to World Cup teams in an effort to gain their support. Didier Cuche, World Cup downhill champion, donated his prize money. And while these and many, many more players contribute to the relief efforts for Japan, some players are going through the hardship of dealing with their hometowns being destroyed and not knowing whether or not their family is okay. For example, Hiroki Kuroda's family lives in Japan and while he faces the challenge of not being there with them in moral support, he knows that he must focus on the job at hand, pitching. He looks at it in the perspective of staying focused on his job, day to day, week to week, doing whatever he can to ignore the thoughts he has about Japan whenever on the mound.
These players have the ability to make a difference, and so far, many of them are. You can help, too. If you want to contribute to helping these players' families who are still struggling in Japan or follow in the footsteps of those athletes who have already donated, visit http://www.worldvision.org/ or any other relief website.