PIRATES CHARITIES AND OTHER COMMUNITY NEWS

On Friday, July 1, the Pirates will host the 15th annual Pirates Charities Game on AT&T SportsNet. On this day, fans can donate to support Pirates Charities and receive special, autographed items and opportunities to come out to PNC Park. New this season, fans can donate at different levels to receive exclusive items unique to the Pirates Charities Game.

Pirates pitcher David Bednar, alongside the Pirate Parrot, surprised first graders at Mars Primary School on April 27 with baseball equipment, donated by Pirates Charities, for their PE classes to help ensure the students have the chance to play the game of baseball.

To help celebrate Women’s History Month, twelve women from the Pirates front office hosted a networking event for 18 local athletes who are part of the Pirates RBI softball program. As part of the networking event, the high school-aged girls got to hear more about working in the sports industry and also participated alongside Pirate employees to pack gift bags for the women and children currently being served by the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, one of the oldest women’s shelters in the country, seeing firsthand the power of giving back to your community.

On January 14, the Pirates joined local Pirates RBI player, Clark Ehman, a 14-year-old student from the City's Northside neighborhood who spearheaded an equipment collection project throughout the city to host a drive-up equipment donation event for the entire community, asking the public to bring their gently used baseball and softball equipment to add to Clark's collection. Thanks to our community and fans, we successfully filled 20 containers with hundreds of baseballs, softballs, bats, gloves, helmet, and more that will empower youth to play of the game worldwide.

On October 30, Pittsburgh's newest Miracle League field, located in Moon Township, hosted the final game of its inaugural fall season, and Pirates Charities, along with Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting and President Travis Williams, joined the Pirate Parrot, the Pierogies and Greg Brown to host a special Halloween-themed event, including costumes and trick-or-treating. To add to the celebration, Pirates Charities announced their commitment of $50,000 to the construction of an adaptive playground adjacent to the Miracle League field, which is projected to be completed for the community next year.

This Thanksgiving, we were proud to partner with our teammates at the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Penguins to host a #BurghProud Thanksgiving meal distribution event. In an effort to give back to those in need this season, players, alumni, leadership and mascots from the Pirates, Penguins and Steelers served 300 families from a distribution site adjacent to PNC Park on the city's Northshore, showing that we are all one team for our community.

On Wednesday, September 1, the Pittsburgh Pirates celebrated the 50th anniversary of Major League Baseball's first all-minority lineup by hosting an in-depth panel discussion at the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum's Heinz History Center. The panel discussion included members of the historic lineup – Gene Clines, Dave Cash, Manny Sanguillen and Al Oliver, in addition to Roberto Clemente Jr., son of the late, great Roberto Clemente. The discussion was moderated by longtime Pirate fan and KDKA Radio Host, Rick Dayton and featured a welcome from Pirates President Travis Williams and a proclamation from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.

Pirates chairman Bob Nutting invited Caleb "The Crusher" Gallagher from the Miracle League of South Hills out to PNC Park to show off his famous knuckleball to Ben Cherrington and the Pirates scouting team. Caleb had the chance to participate in an official Pirates photoshoot, take a VIP tour of PNC Park, meet with manager Derek Shelton and other players and watch the team warm up from the Pirates dugout, all before taking the mound to throw out the first pitch of the game on August 25.