Thursday, August 21, 2008

Celebrating The Giants' Youth Initiative

The San Francisco Giants have won a philanthropy award:

Team officials on Sunday will be presented with the 2008 Steve Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy . . .

. . . One major plank of the team’s outreach is the Junior Giants program. The Junior Giants, in operation for 15 years, is a free baseball program that emphasizes self-esteem and scholarship. Each year the program reaches 15,000 kids between 5 and 18 years old living in cities and suburbs in northern California, Oregon and Nevada.
I think this article sells the Giants' efforts short. In addition to the Junior Giants program, Brian Sabean has made it his personal mission over the years to provide millions in charity payments to senior citizens as well.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I make fun of the Sabean regime a lot, but the Junior Giants program has had a profound impact on my life. They made a tee-ball field- Barry Bonds Junior Giants Field - which is right across from SBC park and PERFECT for wiffle ball. Bay view, low fences, short right field porch, and - when the giants aren't in town - plenty of homeless people to pick up our empty beer bottles.

click here for pictures of the dedication ceremony
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/community/gcf/fielddedications.jsp

Craig Calcaterra said...

That's cool, Christopher. Slagging on Sabean is one of my favorite pasttimes, but appreciations really are in order for the Giants' charitable works.

Palooka Joe said...

There's a lot to admire about the Giants. I know Sabean has made a lot of questionable moves and Barry Bonds is the player a lot of baseball fans love to hate, but look at what they give to San Francisco.
Most baseball teams (and professional sports franchises in general) make some remarkably grand and empty promises about the benefits they bring to their communities. Whether its through charitable giving or one of the best privately-funded facilities in baseball, the Giants are living up to that promise in ways that most teams never do.