Dodgers utility man Chris Taylor and his wife, Mary, are hosting their second annual Polar Plunge event at the Manhattan Beach Pier on Sunday Feb. 2, the day following Dodgerfest.
Taylor took to his Instagram account back in December to announce the event, inviting fans to come and participate. Tickets for general admission are $200 for adults, $50 for students, and $1000 for VIPs and sponsors.
Both Chris and Mary, along with the CT3 Foundation, will be donating a significant percentage of the proceeds to local firefighters, whom will receive free entry to the event. The Taylors recently launched an online donation matching campaign, which has garnered over $50,000 for the LAFD Foundation and runs through Feb. 2, the same day as the event.
The inaugural Polar Plunge helped raise over $250,000 which helped benefit the Friendship Foundation, a local charity that helps individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities. Last year, Taylor spoke on being able to host this philanthropic event for this first time, hoping to continue doing so for years to come.
“It was amazing, more than I could’ve even thought have. From all my teammates going out in the water with me, to the Manhattan Beach community showing out, and the event afterwards and all the donations that we received at the live auction, it was amazing. We were able to raise a lot of money, so hopefully it’s the first of many great events.”
Attendees will get the opportunity to take a swim alongside Dodgers players of past and present, and the event will be hosted by actor Joel McHale.
Mookie Betts continues to be an MVP-caliber player when healthy, but 2024 saw a noticeable dip in his pull rate, hard hit rate, and average exit velocity.
Betts was primarily targeted on the outside part of the plate last season, and that led to a decrease in his pull rate and an opposite effect for his ability to spray the ball to all parts of the field. The near 40-home run power that Betts displayed in 2023 might be a thing of the past if pitchers league-wide maintain their strategy against him.
Davy Andrews of FanGraphs.com dives into the changes in Betts’ overall performance.
Shohei Ohtani took to his Instagram account to announce that he will be donating $500,000 to local firefighters and those forced to live in shelter helping animals.
Translated from Japanese: “Our hearts go out to all the firefighters who continue to fight for us during the fires in LA. We’ll be donating $500,000 to help those firefighters and those forced to live in shelter to help animals in need. The Los Angeles Dodgers are also working together with other teams from other competitions to help sell T-shirts and more. I hope you all will consider this. I hope you recover soon.”