Sean Doolittle Wins BBBA’s 2016 ‘Tony Gwynn’ Leadership Award

These 2 are always in the charity work. Recently they have even hosted dinners for a LGBT dinner, and Thanksgiving Dinner for Syrian refugees..

By Chuck Booth (BBBA President)

We are proud to present the winner of the Tony Gwynn Leadership Award to Oakland A’s Relief Pitcher Sean Dooittle, who narrowly edged OF Curtis Granderson of the New York Mets  by one mere vote.

This distinction goes to an outstanding individual in the MLB that reflects both a great leader in the game – but also off the field.

Thanks to all members who voted.   The other nominees were Clayton Kershaw, Brett Lawrie and Jeff Francoeur.

Here was a response from one of our members (A’s Chapter President – Jen Rainwater – and what she wrote about Doolittle, and his girlfriend Eireann Dolan.)

I had a tough time with this because I really like Jeff Francouer, he’s been a friend to the Oakland fans for years – he even tailgated with us on a day inspired by his friendship – Bacon Day – when he played in the AL we had Bacon Day three or four years in a row – so much so that the organization got in on it and had “Bacon Facts” etc up on the big screen during the game. He’s a great person!

However, Sean Doolittle and Eireann Dolan are two of the most amazing people on earth. They made national news helping the Syrian refugees but they do so much more just around the community striving for equality, helped the families of fallen police officers and helped to spread the word about drunk driving when a man named Diego was struck and killed by a drunk driver – getting his brother the chance to throw out the first pitch at a game and dedicated it to Diego. The hashtag #FirstPitchFoDiego got Doolittle’s attention and he helped the family, not to mention the million things that Eireann Dolan has done for LGBTQ rights – they are truly selfless and amazing people.

If you are interested here is a link to a piece I wrote on Doolittle and Dolan for FanRag Sports Network’s TodaysKnuckleball.com … it details many of their good works and is worth a read if you are having trouble with your decision. I’m not telling you who to vote for at all, just providing more information. I know Eireann Dolan and have insight about what she and Doolittle have done for the community that you may not find elsewhere! Thanks for reading this and I hope you will check out my post! Thank you!

Read Jen’s piece on Doolittle  here.

I am not surprised Doolittle won here either.  A lot of the BBBA members have had the ability to meet the man before, and all have come back raving about him.