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November Cheers To Charity: Tanner Houck's Pitch For Adoption

November 17, 2021

November Cheers To Charity: Tanner Houck's Pitch For Adoption

Dugout Mugs is proud to announce that Pitch For Adoption is our November Cheers To Charity recipient. Started by Boston Red Sox pitcher Tanner Houck, the organization raises money for Caritas Family Solutions, a non-profit that helps create loving homes and build stronger communities.

It’s an organization that hits close to home for the Major League Baseball star. While pitching at a JV baseball game in the back fields of his high school, Houck recalls his mom rolling up and pushing a stroller much to his surprise.

“A year before that, my family had signed up to become foster parents,” he said. “My mom wanted to be a foster parent and she asked me and my sister our thoughts. I was thinking that this is perfect because I will get a younger brother.”

Little did he know he’d be getting a younger sibling, but not the brother he had hoped for.

“My mom had finally gotten a call saying we have a little girl for you, so there she was my new sister, Reanna, when she was four, at my baseball game out of the blue,” Houck added. “I already had a younger sister, and now my youngest sister is four years old. I was like wow this is crazy.”

The process of adoption and the difference it makes in a young person's life, not only impacted Houck, it made him realize how blessed he was growing up and inspired him to create Pitch For Adoption. 

“I wanted to touch all these younger children that are in foster care and in certain homes,” he explained. “Just to be able to give back to kids and impact their lives in a way that I saw it happen with Reanna now. To see the opportunities that she has, I just want to give back to them, and let them know they have a chance to succeed in life.”

At Dugout Mugs, we celebrate and serve the heroes of the baseball community and we do that by creating super fun gifts that bring people closer to the game. But we also do it through this initiative called Cheers To Charity, where we select one to two heroes in the baseball community and brotherhood that are doing good things in the world.

“Some are still playing, some are done playing, and on to the next chapter and we support that because that’s what it’s all about,” said Dugout Mugs CEO Kris Dehnert. “The baseball community supports us unbelievably and we try to do the same thing.”

In addition to our initial donation of $1000, we are taking a considerable amount of every sale purchased through DugoutMugs.com/TannerHouck and giving it straight to the foundation.

Tanner Houck Collection

Watch our complete interview with Tanner! 

About Cheers To Charity:

Our #CheersToCharity initiative has helped numerous foundations and organizations in our baseball community including the David Ortiz Children’s Fund, Mariano Rivera Foundation, Lance McCullers Jr. Foundation, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Eddie Guardado Foundation, the HelpCure HD Foundation, We Fam United and many others.

If you know any heroes of the baseball world, let us know so we can continue to celebrate & serve them through our Cheers to Charity initiative!