Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Kuroda Augments Dodgers' Giving With $50K Of His Own

This is really impressive: Dodger pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, not one for the public spotlight, announced his donation of $50K to the earthquake and tsunami relief efforts toward his devastated home country of Japan, and rallied support for the cause from his fellow Dodger teammates:

Hiroki Kuroda is not normally the type to get in front of a full clubhouse and address his teammates.

But these are not normal times.

The Dodgers starting pitcher on Tuesday told his teammates he was donating $50,000 to the earthquake and tsunami relief effort in his homeland of Japan and encouraged them to join him.

"As everyone knows, Japan has been hit with the most devastating catastrophe in its history," said Kuroda, who pitched 11 seasons in Japan before joining the Dodgers three years ago.

"I'm grateful to the Dodgers organization for offering a hand at this time of crisis and just praying for everyone in Japan. I am truly grateful for the concern my teammates have shown."

Kuroda said his money is a portion of what he donates annually through the terms of his $12 million contract.

"Every year I donate $100,000 to the ThinkCure Foundation and I decided to take half of that and give it to earthquake relief," he said. "I decided to do this as soon as the earthquake happened. And I heard the Dodgers organization was holding a fund-raiser today at Dodger Stadium and it means a lot to me that the people in this game are so concerned with what happened in Japan."

Nice to see Kuroda leading on and off the field. He is truly a Hiro.

2 comments:

Fred's Brim said...

I am glad Hiroki is a Dodger again

Kyle Baker said...

Props to Hiroki. Dire situation in his homeland. Our family is feeling the pain on a personal level as Mrs Dusty and her whole family have many relatives living there.