I'll be a fan of YOUR MLB team for CHARITY

My name is Manny Stiles. Amongst my "manny" pursuits, I am a pseudo-celebrity sports blogger. I am offering to highest bidder: For the Major League Baseball Team of YOUR choice, I will give my complete fanship including Manny Stiles' unique journalistic coverage on a blog and also featured on sports-wiki site ArmchairGM.com.

I will write 50 articles throughout the season covering the team of your choice from the end of this Auction until Nov 1st. 99% of the proceeds will benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation , the other 1% will go to a logo emblazoned item for my personal use to PROVE my dedication as a fan of my new team!

From one of my archives - Here is a sample of the writing "stiles" you can semi-imagine will come forth.

WHY would I do this? I am tired of people making fun of me for not having a favorite team. They call me "Bandwagon jumper", "ManWagon", or even "ManWags" for short. I have liked a bunch of different teams through the years, but have never had my "own" baseball team to follow for a whole season. The truth is, I root for baseball! I root for almost every team at one point or another (if the Yankees played a team of Aliens in a game for Earth's freedom, then I might even root for the Yankees, too). I want to follow a team for the whole season, cover them journalistically in my own unique, quirky manners and if they win the World Series, I'll get a tattoo of their logo (just kidding, but it's not out of the realm of possibilities). I just needed a very random way of picking the team to follow!

ALL Major League Baseball teams are eligible (Yes, even the Royals, Devil Rays or *gulp* the Yankees). I will present an average of over 6 articles a month concerning the team of choice through the entire season. Meaty articles with wit, irony, blatent subliminal sarcasm and shenanigans galore!!! I will try my best to get interviews, the freshest of the fresh material and inside information. Who knows what could happen this season? I want to stretch my capabilities as a writer, creative artist and enjoy true fanship for a sure-to-be magical baseball season!

In reality, I am doing this for personal reasons. Long, stupid story short- My brother died due to complications of AIDS in September and yesterday (Feb 22nd) would have been his birthday. I did not find out he even had AIDS until he was already buried. His death and funeral was under pretenses that he had died from lymphoma. Requests were made that donations were to benefit the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers, etc. People in my family were so ashamed that my brother had AIDS, they kept it a secret. It absolutely astonishes me that (then in 2006) we could not "talk" about someone having a disease like AIDS. I fear that if we cannot "talk" about a disease like AIDS, HOW will we ever overcome it?

I chose to benefit PedAIDS.org as the recipient charity because of their reputability. They are easy to deal with and have been very helpful with this charity auction. But also because my brother liked kids, I like kids and kids don't typically acquire AIDS through their own dangerous lifestyle choices. People can't make judgements about innocent children like that. It seems that many people carry a stigma with how AIDS can be acquired, so they don't talk about such means as homosexuality or needle drug usage. As the case with my brother who was NOT a wholesome person, definitely one who was at high risk and not to be confused with a saint... but no matter who or how or why; how can we make progress on topics we don't discuss? There is one topic that needs to be addressed - AIDS is a disease that NEEDS to go away.

More at www.myspace.com/mannystiles and HERE on ArmchairGM

Contact me with any questions at MannyStiles@aol.com