Angels presented with Bobby Murcer Award for record donations to B.A.T.

ANAHEIM -- Prior to Monday’s series opener against the Astros, the Angels were presented with the Bobby Murcer Award for the American League, which recognizes the organization in each league that raised the highest amount in donations to the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.).

The Angels earned the honor for the first time, while the Mets raised the most money among NL clubs for the third straight year. The Baseball Assistance Team hosts an annual Spring Training Fundraising Tour with presentations given to all 30 clubs, and players and executives can donate a portion of their salary to B.A.T. The award is named after late Yankees outfielder Bobby Murcer, who is a former B.A.T. chairman and came up with the idea of raising donations during Spring Training in 2003.

Superstar Mike Trout, right fielder Jo Adell and veteran reliever Kirby Yates donated the most among Angels players, and were honored on the field in a special pregame ceremony along with manager Kurt Suzuki, Murcer’s widow, Kay, and B.A.T. executive director Erik Nilsen.

“It's great,” Nilsen said. “You look at the support we got this spring, the players really understand how we help people. They know people that we've helped. It kind of resonates a little bit more when it's been someone maybe in that clubhouse or in that organization. And for them to win it, obviously not the highest payroll, but really showing up and outperforming some of those bigger payrolls, it shows the quality of the people in the clubhouse.”

The Baseball Assistance Team was founded in 1986 and has provided $73 million in grants to 13,500 members of the “baseball family,” including players, managers, coaches, scouts, umpires, athletic trainers, front office staff, Negro League players and members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. This spring, they raised a record $5.3 million, and the Angels donated the most by one team in B.A.T.’s history.

“We're a global organization, so we not only help out people in the U.S., but across the globe,” Nilsen said. “The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Mexico. With the recent earthquakes in Venezuela, we've seen a surge in crisis applications in Venezuela, just having an extreme impact on the people's baseball family in hard times.”