MLBPA Info    Sights and Sounds 11/18/2008 10:18 AM ET McDonald
making game accessible Blue Jays shortstop invests in the
community tickets for any Major League Baseball game John
McDonald grew up in Connecticut, about two hours north of Yankee
Stadium and about two hours southwest of Fenway Park.  Since his
father was a Yankees fan, McDonald's earliest memories of
watching a Major League game came at Yankee Stadium during the
Don Mattingly Era when he was 5 or 6. He was in attendance for
an Opening Day game and an Old Timer's game, among others.  The
trips into New York left a strong impression, but McDonald did
have one regret.  "It was hard to get autographs," he said.  So
now that McDonald is in the Major Leagues, he tries to make it
possible for regular folks to get up close to the game. He and
several Jays visited wounded American soldiers at the Walter
Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., during a road trip
to Baltimore in 2007.  "We talked baseball for awhile," McDonald
said.  Later McDonald