BOSTON -- Players from four professional sports teams will be at the gates at Fenway Park before and during Sunday's Red Sox-Rays 1:35 p.m. ET game to collect donations to raise funds for Florida, which is expected to endure severe damage from Hurricane Irma later this weekend.
Along with the Red Sox and Rays, the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers of the NHL will also take part in the collection of funds on Sunday.
Donations will support Red Cross relief efforts that may be needed in the Florida area. Florida is the home of the Red Sox's Spring Training facility, JetBlue Park, in Fort Myers.
"Yeah, I think it's always great when teams or groups of people come together in times of need," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "We've got a lot of guys that either make offseason homes down there or guys that even at this point have families that are unable to evacuate that are actually going to go over to JetBlue Park and stay there. This is a serious situation, and I think in these times that are challenging, the goodness of people starts to really come through."
Red Sox right-hander Rick Porcello has a home in Southwest Florida.
"You do what you can to prepare for it and lock everything up and put the storm shudders on and board it up and just wait and see," Porcello said. "I look at it like I'm in a pretty fortunate situation. There's a lot of other people who are going to get hit a lot harder and be affected by it a lot more than I am. I just think about those people in this type of a situation and hopefully it doesn't hit as badly as expected. We'll just provide whatever kind of support we can and go from there."