Cardinals' Matt Carpenter pledges $10K to Houston relief for each homer
As people across the country look for ways to help Houston rebuild itself after being decimated by Hurricane Harvey, one MLB star is putting his money where his bat is.
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St. Louis Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter — who was born in Galveston, Texas, and spent his youth in La Marque and Missouri City, both of which are near Houston — has pledged to donate $10,000 for every home run he hits the rest of the season to help the damage in Houston.
From now till the rest of the season we will donate 10,000 dollars for every Homerun I hit to help aid the relief efforts in Houston
— Matt Carpenter (@MattCarp13) August 28, 2017
Upon hearing what Carpenter was doing, teammate Adam Wainwright — who is from Georgia — said he’d match each $10,000 donation.
Because @UncleCharlie50 is a stud in every sense of the word..he has pledged to match the 10,000 for each Homerun I hit #prayingforHouston
— Matt Carpenter (@MattCarp13) August 28, 2017
Carpenter, 31, has hit 17 homers this season, including one on Sunday. If he keeps that pace, a little bit of math tells us he could hit six or seven more homers this season. Last year, Carpenter hit 21 homers. In 2015, he hit a career-high 28 homers.
He’d need to get hot to reach that total, but hey, he’s got some extra motivation now. And that would certainly help the Cardinals, who are six games out of the second Wild Card spot in the National League.
Elsewhere: MLB and the MLB players’ union has announced a $1 million donation to help Houston as well. That came when the league announced it was moving the first three Houston Astros games this week to Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. They’ll play Tuesday-Thursday against the Texas Rangers. The Astros could stay at Tropicana Field the rest of the week to play their series with the Mets if things in Houston don’t clear up.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz