Blue Jays charity goes to bat for community

Proceeds from MLB’S ‘biggest 50/50’ supporting families hard hit by COVID-19 pandemic

Charity begins at home plate when you’re talking about the Jays Care Foundation, and tonight someone in Ontario will take home at least $500,000.

The foundation, the charitable arm of the Toronto Blue Jays, is holding its first virtual 50/50 virtual jackpot of the 2021 season. Proceeds from what is being described as Major League Baseball’s “biggest 50/50” will support children and families in the province disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

Ticket deadline is 10 p.m. Wednesday, following Toronto’s home game — at their spring training site in Dunedin, Fla. — against the New York

Yankees.

People 18 and older can purchase tickets online at bluejays.com/5050. Tickets are five for $10, 15 for $20, 100 for $50 and 250 for $100.

Early bird prizes in the massive online draw include a 2021 Honda Civic Sedan Sport, a bat signed by Joe Carter, whose walk-off home run against the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1993 World Series gave the Blue Jays their second consecutive championship.

For more than 20 years, the Blue Jays through their foundation have focused on levelling the playing field for children and youths across Canada.

Last year, the Blue Jays received the Allan H. Selig Award for philanthropic excellence from Major League Baseball in recognition of its community response to food insecurity and social isolation amid a pandemic. The club and the foundation invested $7.5 million to help Canadian families in underserved communities.

Bud Selig was baseball commissioner from 1998 until 2015 after serving as acting commissioner for six seasons.