ATLANTA, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- During the 2008 baseball season, AutoTrader.com teamed up with newly-inducted Baseball Hall of Fame Pitcher Goose Gossage to raise money for youth baseball programs in six U.S. cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

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During the six-month tour, Gossage and AutoTrader.com have been visiting Major League Baseball stadiums and collecting baseball players' signatures on the hood of a fully customized new 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe. Gossage even took the hood to Cooperstown, N.Y., during his Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where other Hall of Fame players on hand for the event also signed the hood.

For each of these signatures, AutoTrader.com planned to donate $1,000 to youth baseball programs, originally capping the donation amount at $75,000. Due to the overwhelming response from players across the country, AutoTrader.com has increased the donation to $100,000.

At each stop of the program, Gossage hosted a baseball pitching clinic for inner city children in the area in conjunction with the stadium visits. He also hosted a consumer event outside each stadium prior to games where he mingled with and signed autographs for fans. AutoTrader.com also used this event as an opportunity to promote the company's new-car on-line shopping tools.

"Long-recognized as the No. 1 site for used car buyers and sellers to connect, 2008 represented a new start for AutoTrader.com with our new focus on connecting new car buyers and sellers," said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry. "With these clinics and our donation, AutoTrader.com is giving a new start to inner city children and this year represented a new start for Goose as a Baseball Hall of Fame member."

The Tahoe itself and the hood of that vehicle, now a one-of-a-kind piece of baseball memorabilia, will be auctioned off at the Barrett-Jackson Specialty car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., in January. The proceeds from auctioning the vehicle and the signed hood will also be donated to youth baseball programs in the six "Drive to a New Start" program cities.

SOURCE: AutoTrader.com

CONTACT: Mark Scott, AutoTrader.com, +1-404-568-7905, or cell,
+1-404-435-2047, Mark.Scott@AutoTrader.com; or Jeff Nessler, Porter Novelli,
cell, +1-404-422-5814, Jeff.Nessler@PorterNovelli.com, for AutoTrader.com

Web site: http://www.autotrader.com/