When Texas Rangers starter Jon Gray strikes out a big-league hitter, it means more than just another batter headed to the dugout. And when he earns a win, it represents more than just a letter recorded on his stat sheet.
Each season, he donates $100 per strikeout to The Pawerful Rescue, an animal shelter in Royse City, Texas. And he donates $500 per win to the Adaptive Training Foundation, which supports athletes with physical or traumatic impairments in nearby Carrollton.
For Gray, those contributions are much more meaningful than any of the pitching successes that they’re tied to.
“It’s better than anything I’ll do on the field, that’s for sure,” Gray told The Sporting News. “I think it lasts longer, too. People will forget about games and all that, and how well you played one day, but they’ll always remember how you treated them.”
Through their charitable foundation, Gray and his wife, Jacklyn, have hosted military personnel at Rangers home games, donated ballpark suites for youth experiencing homelessness to celebrate their birthdays and anchored the team’s annual toy drive, among other initiatives. Last year, he earned the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award and the Rangers’ Roberto Clemente Award for those efforts, and he’s now been recognized as one of the Major League Baseball Players Association’s (MLBPA) “most valuable philanthropists” for 2024.
Over the years, this multifaceted charitable work has become more meaningful to him than anything he might accomplish on a baseball diamond.
“It’s different, but it’s the thing I love most about baseball,” he added.
Gray was the third-overall pick by the Colorado Rockies in 2013, following a 1.64 ERA, 17-start season for the University of Oklahoma that earned him the College Baseball Hall of Fame’s Pitcher of the Year award.
His focus at that time was, understandably, more narrow. He had become one of the most promising young baseball players in the world by making on-field success his priority. But as his career progressed, that focus broadened.
“I just kind of realized what all of my actions going into each day were kind of like coming out to, what they kind of equaled to,” he explained. “And I just realized I was putting too much emphasis on baseball and just wanting to be the best player I could be and everything like that. So, I just realized how unimportant it was.”
Gray was quick to add that he has maintained his focus on winning and that this broader perspective ultimately brings him more success on the mound. But he learned to place more trust in his preparation and effort and to shift his perspective to the “big picture of life” rather than on the aspects of his career that he can’t control.
Gray traces his evolution in mindset to 2018 and 2019, the midpoint of his time with the Rockies. On the field, those seasons included some ups and downs. In 2018, he was the Rockies’ Opening Day starter but was ultimately designated to Triple-A before the team embarked on a playoff run. And then a season-ending foot injury in 2019 interrupted one of the most effective campaigns of his career.
“I think that was when I kind of like — not necessarily gave up on baseball — but it stopped becoming so important to me because I realized that the crushing defeats of it, they were hard to come back from, and I just realized I invested too much into that,” he explained. “But I can invest in something I can control everyday, and what I control is how well we treat people in the community around us.”
In 2021, Gray joined the Rangers and immediately began searching for ways to support his favorite causes in the Arlington area. As his impact on the community grew, he played a key role in the team’s championship last season, making 29 regular-season starts and holding the Arizona Diamondbacks scoreless in 4.2 innings of relief in the World Series.
But Gray was hit with more on-field setbacks this season, as groin and foot injuries limited him to just 19 starts. He expects to be cleared for all baseball activities in the next two weeks and will be visiting The Pawerful Rescue and working out with Adaptive Training as he progresses toward a return next year.
Through this latest rehab and ongoing philanthropy, Gray will lean on the hard-earned perspective that drives him on and off the field.
“Everything’s an opportunity to me,” he concluded. “Instead of an opportunity to lose, it’s an opportunity to gain. And it’s a little more motivating, really, knowing that you’re going to help somebody out in the future. It’s more motivating than helping yourself.”
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