Major League Baseball today announced details surrounding league-wide efforts to raise awareness about prostate cancer and raise funds for research to fight the disease during games on Father’s Day 2018, June 17th. The Colorado Rockies will be in Texas to play the Rangers on Sunday.
During Father’s Day games, players and on-field personnel will wear the symbolic blue ribbon on their uniforms along with blue wristbands. Also, for the third consecutive year, players will wear specially-designed caps to raise awareness and funds for the fight against prostate cancer.
The caps are light blue with a team color brim. Players also have the option to wear multi-pattern blue-dyed socks as well as a lightweight, hooded fleece with the MLB-silhouetted-batter-stamped prostate cancer awareness ribbon during batting practice and on the bench. MLB will again donate all royalty payments from the sales of specialty caps and apparel to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer.
Commemorative base jewels and dugout lineup cards also will be blue. In addition, the following game equipment can be used for prostate cancer awareness throughout Father’s Day Weekend: light blue compression sleeves, light blue batting gloves, light blue footwear, light blue wrist/elbow/leg guards and catcher’s equipment. Players and all on-field personnel have worn blue ribbons and sported blue wristbands on Father’s Day since MLB first partnered with the Prostate Cancer Foundation in 1996.
Several MLB Clubs will host special pregame ceremonies, including ceremonial first pitches and representatives from the Prostate Cancer Foundation attending games. On Father’s Day, MLB.com, all 30 Clubs and broadcast partners will express their gratitude by sharing their favorite baseball moments of Dad on social media using #MLBDads, and fans are encouraged to do the same.
This effort also includes the annual Prostate Cancer Foundation “Home Run Challenge,” which has given fans the chance to make a one-time monetary donation or pledge for every home run hit by their favorite MLB Clubs during the time period of Friday, June 1st through Father’s Day, Sunday, June 17th, all the while tracking where their team stacks up in a “Team vs. Team” competition. Every dollar donated through the Home Run Challenge goes to PCF to fund critical research to defeat prostate cancer. As of June 15th, more than $1.85 million has been pledged via the Home Run Challenge in 2018. Since inception, the Home Run Challenge has raised nearly $50 million for PCF, the world’s leading philanthropic organization funding and accelerating prostate cancer research.
Overall, PCF has raised more than $745 million for prostate cancer research to date, and provided funding to more than 2,000 research programs at nearly 200 cancer centers and universities, resulting in 15 FDA-approved drugs available for prostate cancer treatment. One in nine men are predicted to be diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. For more information about PCF, please visit PCF.org.
