Daily News sports columnist Tom Hoffarth wrote last month on his blog about the old Wrigley Field in South Los Angeles and about the Wrigley Little League that plays now right about where left field used to be. The post led to a story in the paper, which in turn led to some donations to help the youth league. Hoffarth blogs about that and also emails:

That led to a donation of $500 from Dodgertown West in the Valley in the name of a recently deceased member, Joe Mausser.

The intent of the story wasn't to try to drum up donations for this obviously hurting Little League, but that's the interesting residue of stories like this sometimes. You find the goodness of people who see a need and then act upon it.

Another friend in Manhattan Beach who works for Dick's Sporting Goods also donated $100 worth of baseballs and printed Dodger jerseys for the Dodgers team so they wouldn't have to wear Cubs uniforms any more.

The power of a simple story in the paper, I think, can still matter.