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Rays Fans Shower Pete Fairbanks's Charity With Donations After Emotional Save

The Tampa Bay closer lost a daughter to Turner Syndrome, and raises money to help support the Turner Syndrome community with every strikeout.

Josh Wilson

Pete Fairbanks of the Tampa Bay Rays
Pete Fairbanks of the Tampa Bay Rays / Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
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Pete Fairbanks got the final out of a save on a strikeout on Sunday, and with it, he donated another $100 to the Turner Syndrome Foundation, one near to him because he lost his daughter to the disease in early 2024.

That brings his season total up to at least $3,500 in donations. But the foundation got a whole lot more awareness and fiscal support from fans around the league.

"My pockets are $100 lighter, but you know, I think it was a great summation of what we've been trying to do, Fairbanks said in a postgame interview after the game.

The interview, which was on RokuTV for free for fans nationwide, gained steam and earned many more charity donations from fans. Lydia, Pete's wife, told Rays sideline reporter Tricia Whitaker after the game that everything on their charity auction had bids and got a huge spike after the game, with shirts raising awareness selling out.

"If you're local, come build some Legos with me," Fairbanks said, which is one of the experiences fans can bid on. His wife updated later that afternoon that it was up to over $1,000 to build Lego with Pete. Later in the evening, it would climb above $1,500.

Asked if he felt his daughter's presence, Fairbanks said, "Definitely felt a piece [of her] out there. So you know, I'll take that."

Interested fans can see the charity auction items on the Rays website.

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Josh Wilson
JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

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