Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) to honor Dennis Gilbert and Sam McDowell at the Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego
Gilbert, Long-Time Sports Agent and Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Chicago White Sox, Will Receive the “Big B.A.T./Frank Slocum Award” For Exemplary Service & Dedication to B.A.T.
McDowell, B.A.T. Board Member and Six-Time MLB All-Star, Will Receive the “B.A.T. Lifetime Achievement Award”
The Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) today announced plans to honor two individuals who have contributed greatly to the charitable organization dedicated to the Baseball Family – Dennis Gilbert and Sam McDowell. Both will be honored at the B.A.T. Breakfast, held during the Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego, CA on Wednesday, December 7th.
Dennis “GoGo” Gilbert, who is a long-time sports agent & Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Chicago White Sox over the last 20 years, will be honored with the Big B.A.T./Frank Slocum Award for exemplary service and dedication to B.A.T. Gilbert is also the founder of the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation (PBSF), a former Minor Leaguer, and the Manager Partner of Paradigm Gilbert, the largest life insurance broker in the country. The platform built by Gilbert through PBSF, which was absorbed by B.A.T. in 2020, allowed for the organization to serve scouts on a greater scale. Some of Gilbert’s clients as an agent included George Brett, Bobby Bonilla and Mike Piazza. Previous recipients have included Don Zimmer (2000), George Steinbrenner (2004), Bob Costas (2005), Sean Casey (2007), George Brett (2008 & 2009), Ozzie Smith (2008 & 2009), Bob Watson (2011), Adam Jones (2012), Johan Santana (2013), Jimmy Rollins (2014) and Jake Peavy (2016).
“Sudden” Sam McDowell, a six-time MLB All-Star and Cleveland Guardians Hall of Famer, will receive the B.A.T. Lifetime Achievement Award. McDowell was the Mental Health/Addiction Recovery consultant for B.A.T. from 1986 through 2016. Sam joined the B.A.T. Board of Directors in 2017 and served as Vice President from 2020 to 2022. He also provided support on B.A.T. awareness and fundraising campaigns with players and club front offices. Previous recipients include Joe Garagiola Sr. (2011), Bob Gibson, Cookie Rojas & Frank Torre (2012), Michael Weiner (2014) and Bob Watson (2017).
The Baseball Assistance Team, now in its 37th year, is a unique organization within the sport dedicated to confidentially assisting members of the Baseball Family who are in need of help with financial, psychological or physical burdens. Assistance is offered through charitable contributions in a variety of forms, including financial grants, healthcare resources and rehabilitative counseling.
In 2020 and 2021, B.A.T. almost doubled the amount of members of the Baseball Family they helped than they previously had in their entire three-decade-plus history. Over that two-year span, B.A.T. provided $12.1 million in assistance to more than 4,100 applicants, covering mortgage/rent, household expenses, prescriptions, medical bills, utilities, health insurance, therapy, outstanding debt, funeral expenses, auto payments/insurance and educational/vocational opportunities. The vast majority of the applicants are former players, with others receiving help including scouts, umpires, athletic trainers, Negro League players and front office staff. 90% of the applicants were under 50 years old and whose income is less than $20,000 per year, with 79% residing in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and other South American or European countries.
To date, the organization has awarded more than $59 million in grants, benefiting more than 9,100 members of the Baseball Family, including current and former, on-field Major & Minor League personnel (players, managers, coaches) as well as scouts, umpires, athletic trainers, Major & Minor League front office personnel, Negro League players, and players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. B.A.T.’s coverage also extends to widows, widowers and children, ages 23 and under, of the above groups. All aid provided by B.A.T. is strictly confidential, allowing those in need to receive help discreetly. For more information about the Baseball Assistance Team, please visit: BaseballAssistanceTeam.com, Facebook.com/BaseballAssistanceTeam or Twitter.com/BATcharity.
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Contact: Steve Arocho or Aby Goodman, Major League Baseball, (212) 931-7878, twitter.com/mlb_pr