Why Is The Bambino Walking Down Route 20?

Here is something you do not expect to see across the street from a scrap yard. Or anywhere else, really.

At first, I thought maybe the guy was lost, looking for a men’s league baseball game. This was very unlikely, however, since there are no such leagues that I know of near Darien (or I would have thought and talked about making a comeback before thinking better of it long ago) and it had been raining hard all afternoon.

Turns out his name is Matthew Schreiner and he said he was on the first day of a very long walk. From Buffalo to Yankee Stadium. Again, walking.

The guy in the red car, his father, is a cancer survivor – “I had cancer in six organs,” he said – and the Niagara Falls native headed out Tuesday morning on what he figures will be an 11-day stroll to raise money for research at Roswell Park, where his father was treated.

“I’m going to stop at night,” he said. “To sleep.”

He left Roswell Park on rollerblades this morning. Not surprisingly, given the hills along Route 20, especially in Genesee County, he switched to walking somewhere near Darien.

WGRZ featured Matt’s journey on the 6 o’clock news, and there is a donation form on Roswell Park’s web site. He is updating his trip on his Facebook page and via Twitter. 

He said he is wearing a uniform honoring Babe Ruth (yes, I know, there were not names on any jerseys in The Babe’s day or on Yankee pinstripes, well, ever, but let’s not get picky). The greatest baseball player who ever lived – and you have no idea how difficult that is for me to say about a Yankee – died of throat cancer in 1948 at age 53 (Note that neither of the following newsreel clips, about his Yankee Stadium tribute nor his funeral, uses the word "cancer.")

We gave Matt a couple of stylish long-sleeve Stanley Staba and Sons shirts and a donation and, since it was almost 5 p.m., pointed him toward Darien’s finest dining establishment, My Saloon, for dinner.

All of us at We Want Marangi wish Matt and his dad the best of luck and the clearest of skies on their quest.