Trevino on toy drive: 'We love to give back' 

ARLINGTON -- Rangers catcher Jose Trevino knows what a good toy means to a child.

He loved throwing his tennis ball against solid objects. Like helicopters.

Real helicopters. The ones that were serviced by his dad Joe “Bugé” Trevino at the Army Depot located on Corpus Christi Naval Base.

“I would take a tennis ball and throw it off a helicopter,” Trevino said. “My dad fixed the helicopters. Fixed their radios. You could sit in there, but he would say, ‘Don’t touch this, don’t touch that.’ I would be messing around. I would be pretending to shoot the gun and he was like, 'Don’t touch that.'”

Yeah, a tennis ball for a toy is one thing. A machine gun? Not a good idea.

“It was cool,” Trevino said. “Everybody at the hangar knew me. Half the people there my dad worked with. He probably coached their kids or their nephews. He was just like, ‘Don’t do anything dumb.’”

Bugé Trevino made his living as a mechanic. His wife Patsy was a school cafeteria manager and they raised four children -- sons Victor and Jose and daughters Sarah and Joann -- in Ben Bolt and Alice, two small towns just outside Corpus Christi.

Bugé’s passion was baseball and he spent over 35 years as a volunteer youth coach and umpire. He helped get the baseball program started at John Paul II High School in Corpus Christi in 2006 and Jose led the Centurions to two state titles in 2010-11 during his junior and senior years.

“My dad loved baseball,” Trevino said. “When I say, 'love baseball,' [it was] to the point of obsession. But let me be clear, he never forced me to do it. He put me around it and it was awesome. I loved the game and everything around it.

“As parents, my mom and dad always taught me life lessons and the life lessons you get in baseball are the same ones you get in life. It drives me. My dad loved to coach kids and I do too. I love being around kids when they are experiencing the good things in baseball or the bad times.”

Bugé passed away in October 2013 when his son was a sophomore at Oral Roberts. But Bugé’s memory is a driving force for the Trevino family as they prepare for their annual Trevino Toy Drive. This popular Corpus Christi endeavor began four years ago when Trevino was still making his way through the Rangers' farm system.

“I was literally feeling I should be giving back to my community more,” Trevino said. “Just felt it would be nice. I saw a lot of people doing a lot of charity stuff. I get involved during the season, but this was the offseason and I felt I probably could make an impact.

“We were like, 'Let’s get some toys for some kids around the area and an organization where we could help out.' Sure enough, we connected with a few people and they were like, ‘These are the people who could use some help.’ We were like, ‘Let’s do it.'”

The first year benefitted the Boys and Girls Clubs of Alice, and now the West Side Helping Hand in Corpus Christi.

“It’s an after-school program,” Trevino said. “Basically, a place where moms or dads are working late, they bring those kids in free of charge. They teach them arts and crafts, they help with homework and they have outside activities like kickball, volleyball, basketball.”

The first two years involved a toy drive and a baseball camp. A home run derby was added last year, allowing local high school players to compete for Rangers tickets.

As an added bonus to the festivities, Trevino arrived by helicopter, landing on the field and stepping out dressed as Santa Claus to hand out the goodies. It was his first helicopter ride after all those years throwing a tennis ball against the side of one.

“That was really fun,” Trevino said. “It was a tough thing to plan for but I’m glad we did it because it was a lot of fun.”

Santa won’t be arriving by helicopter this year during the COVID-19 crisis. But the toy drive will take place on Dec. 18 with drive-thru distribution being held in the Westside Helping Hand parking lot. The entire family will be involved.

“Me and my family, we love to give back,” Trevino said. “It was something our parents taught us. My sisters really help out a ton. They go above and beyond every year and it has been awesome. Everybody is involved, I don’t want the attention on me.”

The Trevino family has higher aspirations beyond the toy drive. Next to the Helping Hand facility is an empty lot with a makeshift baseball field. The dream is to turn it into a first-class baseball facility that could help honor the memory of their father.

“We are going to try and raise as much money as we can throughout the year until we can get that baseball field,” Trevino said. “No way would I name it after me. It would be so cool to have a stadium with our last name or even my dad’s name and tell his history a little bit. That would be awesome.”