CHICAGO -- Despite being on the injured list, Jason Heyward was going to make sure he was on the Dodgers' trip to Chicago. It’s still where he calls home from his time playing with the Cubs. It’s also the city where Heyward makes his biggest impact off the field.
Over the years, Heyward has always had a passion for giving back to the community. From the moment he was a kid, he knew it was going to be a passion project of his if he ever got the opportunity.
As he began to build roots in Chicago, Heyward wanted to open a place that gave kids the space to practice the game. In 2021, Heyward opened the Jason Heyward Baseball Academy in the Austin neighborhood in the West side of Chicago.
Since its opening, Heyward has constantly tried to make it a place for everyone. On Friday, after the Dodgers’ game at Wrigley Field, Heyward and some of his Dodgers teammates provided a once-in-a-lifetime experience for kids.
The Dodgers, led by Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Chris Taylor, Heyward and about a dozen more players, surprised local kids during a baseball scrimmage. As you would expect, the kids were overjoyed.
“The kids that are going to be there to get that surprise of seeing a Major League Baseball player, I think is really cool,” Heyward said before the event. “As a young kid, anytime I had a chance to get remotely close to a player, it left a lasting impact on me. Getting to go to baseball games, any kind of interaction just brought me closer to hope of becoming one. With that, it gave me the incentive to get into college, get into UCLA and keep shooting past that and see how far I can go.”
Heyward has gone far in his career, and not just with what he’s done on the baseball field, which includes a World Series title with the Cubs in 2016.
“How much it meant to having this space there and now that I’m one of the main partners at the By The Hand Club, having the Jason Heyward Baseball Academy, having this turf field, it’s very special,” Heyward said. “For me to be able to do this now, coming back and bring teammates through and giving guys an opportunity to work out there during the offseason and then so on. This is a space people are going to use coming from the Midwest or coming from all over the country.”
Last year, Heyward and his teammates took a trip to the Academy to check out the facilities. In return, Heyward treated his teammates to a dinner in the city each of the past two years. But for Heyward and the Dodger players who took the time, seeing the joy on the kids’ faces when they walked in on Friday was more than enough compensation.
“The kids are going to be a little older this year and they’ll be doing a baseball scrimmage as well,” Heyward said. “They’ll know their way around the game even more. It’s great having teammates’ support. I can’t take that for granted.”