NEW YORK — It’s Hoops Week for the New York Yankees. They honor people who have found the greatest gift in helping others.
Never did Jon Becker and Mike Sole imagine they would reunite for the first time in the Bronx and make mozzarella.
“It’s like seeing a brother I don’t have,” Sole said.
Their friendship first began when they were minor league athletic trainers in the Yankees organization, but their brotherly bond was sparked during COVID.
“We spent all of 2020 together in small spaces working on intake and little did we know that we were spending more than twelve hours a day for eight months when we became roommates,” Sole explains. “We decided to follow separate career paths, but we still kept in touch.”
Separate paths, but something kept them connected. After Sole fell ill in 2023, and some tests later, he needed a living liver donor transplant and the perfect match was the person he could always call on.
“Something so perfect had to fit together and it ended up being my best friend. It’s just special,” Sole said.
For the first time since the transplant in October, the Yankees brought the men together for Hope Week 2024, touring Arthur Avenue and filling them with Bronx-Italian delicacies.
“A year later, it’s remarkable that the world has been turned upside down in the most positive way,” Sole said.
There are over 100,000 people on the waiting list for transplants. Becker and Sole hope sharing their story can help others in need.
“I am grateful to share our story and use this platform to help tell the story of organ transplants and donating life,” said Becker.
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