Ports Hit Cancer out of the Park on Pink Night

The Stockton Ports held their fifth annual breast cancer awareness night on August 26 at Banner Island Ballpark. All proceeds from the night benefited St. Joseph’s Medical Center, Breast Health Services. On this night, the Ports raised close to $5,000, bringing the total monies raised in five seasons to just over $25,000.

In 2010, Pink Night hit close to home with the Stockton Ports family when Becki Scarsone, wife of then manager Steve Scarsone, was battling through the disease. Today Becki is doing great and is cancer free.

Prior to the game against the Inland Empire 66’ers, the Ports hosted the second annual “Bombs 4 Bombs Home-Run-a-thon” presented by Turner Construction. The Ports recruited 24 participants who were eager to hit home runs to help fight breast cancer. Each softball that crossed the pink line in the outfield was counted as a home run. Fans were encouraged to make pledges to support the event. This year 73 home runs were hit, compared to the 48 hit in 2010. With the home run event alone, close to $500 was raised.

The roster for the event included Ports manager Webster Garrison, hitting coach Brian McArn, pitching coach Craig Lefferts, athletic trainer Nate Brooks, strength coach Chris Borgard, clubhouse manager Vic Zapien, Thunder Hockey front office staff, Ports front office staff, Port City Pirates Basketball head coach Wallace Bryant, Mega 100 representative Christie James, Sacramento Kings announcer Scott Moak, Eddie Maria from the Stockton Fire Auxiliary, California Cougars Soccer player Chris Handsor, DJ Walker from KAT Country, Norma DePauli from St. Joseph’s Medical Center, former San Francisco Giant Patrick Dobson, and the coaching staff from Inland Empire.

“Pink Night was such a success in 2010, so I had a lot of work ahead of me for the event this season!” said Community Relations Manager Margaret Sacchet. “Over all, the event went really well. We had a lot of great vendors out at the ballpark and a lot of people willing to donate to a great cause. The home run contest was a lot of fun and St. Joseph’s was happy at the end of the night, and that is what really counts.”

Not only did $1 from every ticket sold that night go to St. Josephs, but the Ports had a number of events going on through out the ballpark to help raise as much money as possible. Fans had the opportunity to bid on the specialty pink pinstriped jerseys being worn by the players, there was a 50/50 raffle, a player memorabilia raffle, specialty pink T-shirt sales, pink baseball sales for the Pink Wall, and KAT Country even raffled off tickets to an upcoming Taylor Swift concert. The popular ‘How Ya Bean’ kiosk also contributed by donating $1 for every pink Volcano drink sold that evening.

Before the game between the Ports and the 66’ers even began, nine courageous breast cancer survivors took the field with our players for the national anthem as Pink Ports. Each woman got to stand with a favorite player through the duration of the opening ceremony.