- One in 9 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer which is equivalent to at least one player on a baseball team
- One man dies from prostate cancer every 17 minutes which is roughly equivalent to one player per inning
- More than 31,000 men will die from prostate cancer this year
LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 30, 2019 – From June 1 to 16 (Father’s Day), the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) and Major League Baseball (MLB) will team up for the 24th Annual Home Run Challenge, a national men’s health campaign designed to support research and bring awareness to the fight against prostate cancer through the National Pastime.
As an official charitable partner of MLB for more than two decades, PCF continues its efforts to fund cutting-edge research projects as well as provide ongoing efforts to inform and create awareness to the general public through programs such as the Home Run Challenge, which invites baseball fans to “Keep Dad in The Game” and pledge a donation by signing up at HomeRunChallenge.org. Every dollar donated to the Home Run Challenge will be granted to PCF to fund critical research to defeat prostate cancer and improve early detection methods. To date, the Home Run Challenge has raised nearly $50 million for scientific research.
“We are grateful for the continued lifesaving research that Major League Baseball and our thousands of donors across the country have supported,” said Jonathan Simons, MD, PCF’s President and CEO. “The Home Run Challenge public awareness program extends to hundreds of thousands of baseball fans and families with important information about prostate cancer and the latest resources available to men and their families. We are also excited that this research is now touching the precision oncology care of tens of thousands of Veterans with prostate cancer around the country.”
Helping keep Dad “in the game,” PCF and MLB will hold the Home Run Challenge Tour Stops and Awareness Days in stadiums across the nation beginning May 28th with MLB teams providing in-game messages about prostate cancer reaching at least a half-a-million fans. Baseball enthusiasts are also encouraged to continue showing their support by uploading a photo to their social media platforms from the game wearing blue or their favorite MLB team’s jersey or hat using #HomeRunChallenge and/or #KeepDadintheGame. For more information about the Home Run Challenge, please visit www.HomeRunChallenge.org.