When Texas Rangers starter Jon Gray strikes out a big-league hitter, it means more than just another batter headed to the dugout. And when he earns a win, it represents more than just a letter recorded on his stat sheet.
Each season, he donates $100 per strikeout to The Pawerful Rescue, an animal shelter in Royse City, Texas. And he donates $500 per win to the Adaptive Training Foundation, which supports athletes with physical or traumatic impairments in nearby Carrollton.
For Gray, those contributions are much more meaningful than any of the pitching successes that they’re tied to.
“It’s better than anything I’ll do on the field, that’s for sure,” Gray told The Sporting News. “I think it lasts longer, too. People will forget about games and all that, and how well you played one day, but they’ll always remember how you treated them.”
Through their charitable foundation, Gray and his wife, Jacklyn, have hosted military personnel at Rangers home games, donated ballpark suites for youth experiencing homelessness to celebrate their birthdays and anchored the team’s annual toy drive, among other initiatives. Last year, he earned the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award and the Rangers’ Roberto Clemente Award for those efforts, and he’s…
