A Toronto kids’s hospital was flooded this week with a shock surge of hundreds of {dollars} in donations. The unlikely supply? Dodgers followers.
The Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in a monumental World Collection win final week, giving the Boys in Blue back-to-back titles. After such an upset, a rivalry between the cities appears pure. However Dodgers followers are making a widespread effort to show simply the other.
It began on-line when Blue Jays fan Marcus Kim prompt on Reddit that the profitable staff donate to the dropping staff’s native kids’s hospital, a Blue Jays fan custom.
“Let’s offset the negativity generated by gamblers and benefit from the journey,” Kim stated.
Kim later posted his receipt of a $60 donation to Youngsters’s Hospital Los Angeles to Reddit’s r/baseball platform after Recreation 7 with a plea for Dodgers followers to move alongside the goodwill.
The response was astounding with tons of of followers pledging their donations. Thus far, $30,000 has poured into Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Youngsters, also referred to as “Sick Youngsters.”
The acclaimed hospital was no random selection, having been named Newsweek’s No. 1 worldwide decide for 2026’s greatest specialised pediatric hospital.
Sandra Chiovitti, director of Sick Youngsters public relations, advised The Instances that greater than 400 donations from U.S.-based donors all contained references to the Blue Jays or baseball, with some even going past a single donation and pledging to contribute month-to-month.
“Sending love from Los Angeles,” one donor wrote.
“Within the identify of Alex Vesia. We’re rivals, not enemies. Good well being to you and yours. Go Dodgers,” one other stated.
“It has been a candy shock to see these U.S. donations are available in,” Chiovitti stated. “So many causes for us to smile after some tears final Saturday evening.”
The funds will go towards analysis initiatives, gear and implementing superior applied sciences, she stated.
“Baseball followers turned a World Collection rivalry — and heartbreaking loss — into hope for kids’s well being, donating $30K to @sickkids,” the hospital wrote on X. “This may advance care, analysis and training for sufferers and households.”
The concept was impressed by an instance the Blue Jays themselves set. After the Blue Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners for the American League Championship, greater than 150 Blue Jays followers donated to Seattle Youngsters’s Hospital.
Some Dodgers followers who donated shared on-line that they selected an quantity that had particular that means: $51.
The Blue Jays joined the Dodgers carrying the quantity 51 on the facet of their hats in the course of the collection in honor of Dodgers aid pitcher Alex Vesia, who stepped away from the staff , citing “deeply private household issues.”
Vesia has since shared that he was mourning the loss of life of his child daughter.
Helen Cumberbatch, a Dodgers fan who joined in donating to Sick Youngsters, advised the Toronto Star she hopes this motion “turns into a long-lasting custom.”
