CINCINNATI -- The perks of being a Major League Baseball player are numerous, but one of the few drawbacks is players don’t get a ton of time for themselves during the season. Between a 162-game schedule, extensive travel and hours of preparation and practice before every game, afternoons off are a special thing.
On Tuesday, Pirates pitcher Daulton Jefferies spent that time at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, meeting and playing with pediatric cancer patients. This is a fairly regular occurrence for Jefferies, who is heavily involved in the charity Scottie’s Gift, which sets out to bring joy and comfort to newly diagnosed pediatric cancer patients.
“We’re trying to give kids a little more comfort, positiveness while they’re going through treatments,” Jefferies said.
The charity is named after Scottie Kienhofer, a lefty high-school pitcher in Northern California who was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma two weeks before his 17th birthday in 2017. About three weeks into his battle with cancer, he received an iPad from a family friend and loved the idea of kids in his position receiving a similar gift.
Scottie passed about 10 months after his initial diagnosis, but his family carried on that idea with Scottie’s Gift, which delivers care packages to children who were recently diagnosed. Each basket comes with a blanket and an iPad, for starters. Parents also get a questionnaire of what the child likes -- sports teams, comic-book heroes, etc. -- for more age-appropriate gifts, as well as gift cards for DoorDash and other businesses that can take little things off their plate.
Baskets cost between $500 and $600 to produce. On Thursday, the initiative is set to deliver baskets No. 147, 148 and 149.
Jefferies’ trip to the hospital on Tuesday was something he did on his own rather than an official Scottie’s Gift trip. Still, it was very in character for Jefferies, since his charitable work predated joining the organization.
Jefferies’ involvement with the charity dates back to September 2022, when he was with the Athletics. Scottie’s Gift was having its second annual open house and Jefferies came to donate items for the event. There, he met Natalie Kienhofer, Scottie’s sister and now Jefferies’ fiancée. Since then, he’s grown more involved with the charity, especially the sports side, organizing getting signed balls and memorabilia from teams.
“He has done this even before we met him,” Brigit Kienhofer, Scottie’s mom, said. “He has such a connection with children. I know that wherever he is, if he has the time, he likes to stop at children’s hospitals.”
Jefferies’ four-year Major League career had been entirely in the Bay Area before he was acquired by the Pirates in a trade with San Francisco on May 10. He spent his first three years with the Athletics before signing a Minor League deal with the Giants in December and cracking their roster on May 1.
Scottie’s Gift is based in the San Francisco/Oakland area right now, with UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland being the main recipient. The charity is also going to expand to the University of California San Francisco soon, and when it has the funding, the initiative is looking to expand to Stanford and beyond.
“We’re trying to do more work with more children’s hospitals,” Jefferies said.
“We’ll go as far as the funds take us,” Kienhofer said.
Jefferies’ involvement certainly is helping the cause, bringing a Major League player and another family member to the fold. Jefferies wasn't able to meet Scottie, but in a way, he’s helping to carry on his spirit.
“He’s got a unique connection with Scottie, I feel,” Kienhofer said. “He’s helping us make Scottie’s dream come true also, and we’re very grateful for that.”
Alex Stumpf covers the Pirates for MLB.com.
