Rev. Linda Card
I have received only one news item news to report:
Mark “Rookie” Letendre, the director of umpire medical services for Major League Baseball since 1999, retired at the end of the 2019 season. Rookie will serve as an adviser throughout the 2020 season and assist Scott Sheridan, who has taken over his position.
Rookie had a 42-year career in Major League Baseball. He was a certified athletic trainer for the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees, serving as the National League’s representative in the role in the 1987 and 1994 All-Star Games. Upon joining MLB in 1999, he developed and implemented the first comprehensive athletic healthcare program for all Major League umpires and has since tended to umpire injury prevention and treatment issues.
I wanted to reach out to all of you. I am writing this during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is my hope and prayer that you and your loved ones are all healthy and safe. None of us knows, of course, when the current restrictions on group gatherings, travel, and other activities will be lifted. When that times comes, I hope each of us will have a greater appreciation for the simple things: visiting each other in person, hugging our loved ones, and the joys of exploring the beautiful world around us, including in our own yards. I believe our world will be one with a greater sense of kindness and compassion to each other when this is over.
In the meantime, I am repeating what everyone else has already said, and that is we’re all in this together.
Wishing all of us a return to normalcy,
Linda