Craig Breslow's Strike Three Foundation

On Wednesday evening, Nico, Wes7, gigglingone and I attended the Charity Blackjack Event in San Francisco to benefit the Strike Three Foundation, founded by Craig Breslow.

Founded in 2008 by MLB pitcher Craig Breslow, the tenets of the Strike 3 Foundation had been in place for some time.

At age 14, Craig’s sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. More than fifteen years later, she lives an unrestricted life as a cancer survivor.

Unequivocally, this success story is attributed to advancements in pediatric oncology treatment and research funded largely through generous donations and charitable efforts.

The event was amazing! We arrived and were a bit early, but were graciously and warmly welcomed by Craig and his amazing, gorgeous and smart girlfriend (it's ok Craig, I did not hit on her!). The event was very well attended by A's players. In attendance was Bailey, Breslow, Ziggy, Blevins, Anderson, Cahill, Mazzaro, Pennington, Watson, Kouz, Powell and Cust. Most of them brought their kids, wives or girlfriends.

The evening also included blackjack lessons by the MIT Blackjack Team at the Anchor Steam Brewery in San Francisco. Jeff Ma of the feature film,"21", and author of The House Advantage was the guest speaker. Jeff was a great speaker and regaled the crowd with stories of Vegas and his "21" movie anecdotes. Jeff also brought poker legend Phil Hellmuth, who I met and was gracious as well.

The food was awesome, the atmosphere was festive, there were great silent auction items that were interesting to say the least. I bought something to support the cause, although what I really wanted went for well over a grand. Hey, I played the double not the lead!

We all had a good time engaging our favorite and new favorite A's players in conversation, and their families.

Personally, I found all the guys super nice, but in particular, I hit it off with Jack and his wife. I mean Jack was amazingly cool. How cool? The guy asked me tons of questions about me, kept the conversation going, was genuinely interested in what I had to say, and then when he and his wife were going to get something to drink they asked me if they could get me anything. What? Really? How freakin' nice was that???

I could regale you with a ton of photos and autograph stories, but suffice to say that this was not the venue for that. It did not seem right to hound the guys for photos and autographs. But I sure as heck hit up Helmuth for a photo! That guy is money!

There is a link to the foundation, feel free to donate to an awesome cause from an awesome guy, Craig Breslow. Nico, Wes7, gigglingone and I all said our goodbyes and disappeared into the SF night.