Steinbrenner Opens Up His Wallet for a Good Cause

First, let me say Happy New Year to everyone who stops by and reads the site and I guess to everyone who does not come by to read the site although they will have no idea I said it. I hope everyone has a great New Year and stays healthy.

The Holiday's have gotten to George Steinbrenner and as much as I do not particularly care for the Yankees, the man has to be given some applause.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner signed another big check — not to an All-Star player, but to a soldier who got caught up in bureaucratic bungling after being wounded in Iraq.

Army Spc. Robert Loria, a New Yorker who lost his hand in February, was given the $25,000 check yesterday by Yankees President Randy Levine at a press conference also attended by newly signed pitcher Carl Pavano and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had championed Loria's cause.

"[My situation] is getting a lot better and it's because of all the people who have reached out to help," said Loria.

His wife, Christine, couldn't believe how lucky they are.

"When they first turned the check around, I started crying," she said. "That's amazing."

Steinbrenner was touched by Loria's plight when he heard the upstate Middletown man — a huge Yankees fan — was erroneously billed more than $6,000 by the Army while he was recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

He had been charged for his travel expenses and for the equipment he lost when a roadside bomb injured him.

The Yankees also donated an additional $75,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project, which is a group that helps injured veterans rebuild their lives.

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Beltran is set to meet with Minaya on Tuesday in Puerto Rico. It should be a busy week for the Mets and Carlos Beltran as he should be signing on the dotted line on or before January 8th.