A few days ago I received an upsetting e-mail from reader Daniel Laikind:

My good friend Dan Traum, who I met in the 1st grade and have been friends with ever since was a huge Yankees fan. He and I had been to dozens of games over the years sitting in the bleachers during the really bad years of Dent, Green, Merrill et al.

Dan was thrilled about the upcoming season and for the first time in his life bought season tickets, as he wanted to be there to see the Yankees open a new stadium. He finally bought those tix about 10 days before the season started. A few days later, Dan tragically passed away in his sleep of a heart condition at the age of 34. The next day the tickets arrived in the mail. He never got to see the new stadium.

Dan’s family has started a foundation in his name to raise money for a scholarship fund for the high school that we attended together and they are using the tickets to try and raise money for the foundation. They have set up an auction on ebay to sell the tix and we are trying to spread the word to as many people as possible in order to help sell the tickets.

I certainly know how tough times are these days so raising money is tough, and there (unfortunately) are plenty of seats available but if people buy these tickets it will help raise enough money to really make a difference in starting the Daniel Traum Scholarship Fund.

We extend our best wishes to Daniel’s family.