Magic meet-and-greet part of SU2C auction items
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Major League Baseball begins a fundraising auction Monday as part of its support for Stand Up To Cancer. Among the Dodgers items available are a meet-and-greet with Magic Johnson and a round of golf with Fernando Valenzuela.
It would mean a lot to Jenny Oh if you bid often and generously.
Oh is the Dodgers' senior director of corporate partnership services, a one-time intern now a 16-year employee of the team, UCLA grad, native Angeleno and lifelong Dodgers fan.
She's also a breast cancer patient.
While the Dodgers were battling for a postseason berth this summer, Oh battled Stage 3A breast cancer, discovered last March with a mammogram during a routine physical exam. She had lumpectomy surgery, chemotherapy, then 30 radiation treatments that concluded the day before Thanksgiving.
As best as doctors can tell, she's in remission.
"Entering the holidays, I am really thankful and appreciate each day," said Oh, 41. "During the season, it was exciting to watch the team's success and feel the positive energy of our new ownership. It helped me get through my treatments. I had a lot of support from our front office."
Oh said she has drawn inspiration from her late mother, who battled bile duct cancer, as well as broadcaster Robin Roberts, who has twice given a public face to battling cancer.
"Unfortunately, so many women have gone through it," Oh said. "For myself, I'm just keeping a positive attitude."
Oh said she appreciates the leadership role MLB is taking with its year-round affiliation with Stand Up To Cancer.
"Even before I was diagnosed, I felt that baseball's involvement was great, because this disease affects so many people," she said. "Everybody knows somebody affected. So to bring attention to the fight against cancer is really important. I'm glad Major League Baseball chose it as a priority initiative."
Baseball's Winter Meetings this week include an MLB.com Auction to benefit Stand Up To Cancer, which MLB has supported since 2008 as founding sponsor. Public relations representatives from all 30 clubs were inspired to act based on individual club members impacted by the disease, and they jointly organized the auction, which will be officially announced at a news conference on Monday in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., with MLB staff.
Bidding closes at 7 p.m. PT Thursday with 80 baseball-related experiences ranging from private pitching and batting lessons with players to lunches with general managers to team bus rides and meet-and-greets with Hall of Fame players.
The Dodgers have three items up for auction. First, four tickets to a mutually agreed upon game with a batting-practice visit on the field and an opportunity to meet NBA Hall of Famer and Dodgers owner Johnson.
Second, the winning bidder and one guest will join Dodgers legend Valenzuela for a round of golf on a mutually agreed upon date in 2014 at a course in Los Angeles to be determined, and the auction winner and guest will have the opportunity to have an item of their choice signed by Valenzuela.
Third, the winning bidder will receive two field-level tickets to a 2014 Dodgers home game and a guest-hosting gig alongside Kevin Kennedy and David Vassegh on Dodgers Radio AM 570 Fox Sports LA's "Dodgertalk" live from the Clear Channel Studios in Burbank.
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) is a groundbreaking initiative created to accelerate innovative cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now.