Drew baseball players lose hair to raise money

Robert Auletti has become accustomed to hiding his hair under a Drew baseball cap over the past few months. A Rangers senior catcher, he's been growing it all out since Winter Break for a team fundraiser for Grady's Decision.

Auletti was finally able to lose his dark locks on Tuesday night, about three weeks after he'd hoped. Drew students, faculty and staff pledged $5 each to shave a line into a baseball player's scalp — or take a chunk of beard off his chin, at the University Commons.

Rangers baseball coach Brian Hirschberg hoped to raise $500 for Grady's Decision, a nonprofit which provides help with everyday costs like parking, food, and transportation to families who had premature babies or children who need specialized medical attention. Hirschberg, a Morristown resident, brought the charity — which he called "a human organization with a direct positive impact on families in need" — to Drew from Penn State-Behrend, where it was founded by former assistant baseball coach Ryan Smith.

Ryan's wife Katrina Smith gave birth to premature twins, Graden and Gianna, on July 23, 2008. Born with underdeveloped lungs, Graden Vincent Smith lived just 52 hours, and Gianna spent 71 days in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Hirschberg followed Ryan Smith onto the baseball coaching staff at Penn State-Behrend. But Grady's Decision is also particularly important to Auletti, himself a premature baby. Born more than a month early, Auletti's lungs collapsed shortly after birth and he was put on a respirator. He spent 17 days in the NICU, and still has matched scars from the tubes inserted to reinflate his lungs.

"My mom always says it was so sad, when she was able to just hold my hand through the incubator. She could only touch me through a little hole," said Auletti, now a 5-foot-10, 185-pound biology major.

"It took a big toll on my parents. ... I wanted a haircut three weeks ago, but I was thinking, 'The whole team's going to do it. I might as well do it as well.' We're all shaving our heads together. It'll be a fun team-bonding experience."

All 32 Drew baseball players and seven coaches had planned to participate in some way. Senior shortstop Steve Kowalski has the longest beard, and pledged to have both his head and chin shaved on Tuesday.

The Rangers have played just once so far this season — a 9-2 loss to Stevens Tech on Feb. 25, when Auletta estimated it was 30 degrees — and their home opener today was postponed because the baseball field is still under more than eight inches of ice and snow. They head to California on Saturday for a five-game Spring Break trip.

"We have a really close-knit group," said Hirschberg, who is in his fourth season at Drew. "When I threw the idea out there, there wasn't a single person who said, 'What do we have to do?' It was like, 'Sure, let's get on board.'"

Staff Writer Jane Havsy: 973-428-6682; jhavsy@dailyrecord.com; www.dailyrecord.com/writerjane/