Helping feed kids amid coronavirus pandemic part of Texas Rangers' Kyle Gibson's duty
© Christian Petersen/Getty Images North America/TNS Pitcher Kyle Gibson #44 of the Texas Rangers poses for a portrait during MLB media day at Surprise Stadium on February 19, 2020 in Surprise, Ariz. Gibson is a part of Big League Impact, a charity to provide Americans with basic needs. After only two conference calls and a few gaggles with reporters during an abbreviated spring training, this much has become abundantly clear about new Texas Rangers right-hander Kyle Gibson:
He gets it.
Gibson is a very big part of Big League Impact, a charity launched by St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright and country music icon Garth Brooks to help provide Americans with basic needs.
Big League Impact, along with Brooks' Teammates for Kids Foundation and MLB, is helping to provide more than 4 million meals to prevent childhood hunger while schools are closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Dubbed the Home Plate Project, Big League Impact raised just more than $300,000 in a matter of weeks and Teammates for Kinds Foundation tripled that number for $937,100 to be thrown into the pot.
"It's pretty awesome," he said.
Gibson isn't a part of Big League Impact for attention or to create a brand or leave a footprint in the cities where he has pitched or will once the 2020 MLB season is allowed to begin.
Gibson has been blessed with a right arm and work ethic that allows him to pitch in the major leagues and be paid accordingly. It's the kind of money that compels him to help others who need help.
"My wife and I, we try not to look at it as 'putting our footprint,'" he said Thursday via a conference call. "We've been given a lot and we've been put in circumstance we never really thought we'd be put in. We're just trying to do what we feel is expected of us."
All 30 MLB teams participated in the Home Plate Project. Big League Impact asked for donations of at least $5,000 from players, and 52 contributed. Four of them were Rangers — Gibson, Lance Lynn, Robinson Chirinos and Elvis Andrus.
Gibson signed a three-year, $28 million free-agent deal with the Rangers in December, and as a newcomer he wasn't sure who to ask for donations. In fact, he made it clear Thursday that he hopes he didn't offend any of his new teammates by not asking them.
"I don't even have everybody's number just yet," he said.
But Big League Impact found enough guys to exceed their $300,000 goal, and in short order. Gibson said that MLB contacted Brooks only a month ago, once it was apparent that schools would be shut down indefinitely.
Around 20 million kids rely on schools for breakfast and lunch, Gibson said, so a project that was to be spread across the season was done in a matter of weeks. The Home Plate Project will donate meals to school districts and food banks and any group that is helping keep kids fed.
The Rangers portion will be sent through Food for the Soul, which has partnered with food distributors and churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to give food to families impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
Gibson's name is on the project. He even received a shout-out from Brooks, a huge baseball fan, in the press release.
But Gibson isn't trying to leave a footprint or create his legacy.
The guy gets it.
"We do a lot of it out of love," he said. "We've been given love and we've been loved in so many numerous ways, and we feel like a part of our faith is making it important that we spread the love we get and we steward what we've been given."
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