espn.com: Yankees HOPE Week makes big splash

The Yankees signed autographs, posed for the pictures with the kids, and even engaged in a couple games of ping pong.

But then things really got interesting. After taking a big group photo—including all the Yankees, and all the children—water balloons were distributed to everyone. Now, I had seen the buckets of water balloons earlier, and (naturally?) assumed we were going to play a harmless game of water balloon toss—you know, to see which pair could toss and catch the balloon the longest without breaking it…

Next thing I knew, Rivera was…. using a young girl as a shield… drilled in the left shoulder from point-blank range…. bucket of ice water over his head… screaming children.

OK, so there was some selective quoting in that last paragraph.

This is also cool:

When the Yankees moved to the outfield to do their pregame stretching, manager Joe Girardi brought the children along with them. Suddenly, the kids were side-by-side with the players—doing leg bends, running sprints, and high-fiving them at the end of it all.