Former Angels draft pick Bobby Jenks helped the Chicago White Sox win the 2005 World Series.
Twenty years later, the 44-year-old and his family need some help.
Jenks has been diagnosed with Stage 4 adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer. In addition, the family lost its home in the Palisades fire.
Jenks is taking part in a private memorabilia-signing event arranged by PastPros. The money raised will go toward helping the former closer who forced the Houston Astros’ Orlando Palmeiro into hitting a game-ending groundout Oct. 26, 2005, to end the White Sox’s 88-year championship drought.
“As many will have heard, former White Sox closer Bobby Jenks has been diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer (after losing his home in the LA fires),” PastPros posted Wednesday on Instagram.
“To help Bobby and his family with medical costs, we have arranged an in-person private signing with him. All profits will be given to the Jenks family.”
Fans are asked to send the items they wish to have signed (cards, photos, balls or jerseys) to an address provided on the PastPros website by March 25. The items will be signed by Jenks in Portugal — where he, his wife and two of his six children are currently living — and returned by mail.
PastPros also announced that former Dodgers pitcher Darren Dreifort is donating his proceeds from a similar signing event to Jenks and his family.
The Jenks family, through PastPros, declined to comment for this article.
Born in Mission Hills, Jenks later attracted the attention of baseball scouts as a hard-throwing teenager on an American Legion team in North Idaho. After graduating from Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, Wash., in 2000, Jenks was selected by the Angels in the fifth round of that summer’s draft.
Jenks spent much of the next several years dealing with injuries and was designated for assignment after the 2004 season. He was claimed by the White Sox and made his first MLB start in July. In October, he appeared in all four World Series games during Chicago’s sweep of Houston, giving up three hits and two earned runs with seven strikeouts and two walks over five innings pitched.
Jenks played six seasons with the White Sox, earning All-Star nods in 2006 and 2007, then one season with the Boston Red Sox before his career ended after he underwent emergency surgery on his spine to fix a spinal fluid leak that caused a major infection.
Jenks was in Crestfield, Ill., managing the Windy City Thunderbolts independent professional baseball team when the Palisades fire hit. He had his World Series ring with him at the time, Jenks told MLB.com in February, but all the other tangible memories of his baseball career are gone.
“I’ve got one suitcase left to my name,” Jenks said. “It’s all gone. Everything else I’ve ever done. … All those things are irreplaceable.”
He added that he has every intention of being able to manage the Windy City team again this year, as well as attend the White Sox’s 20-year World Series reunion in July.
“Now it’s time to do what I got to do to get myself better and get myself more time, however you want to look at it,” said Jenks, whose family moved to Portugal to be closer to his wife’s family. “I’ll tell you one thing: I’m not going to die here in Portugal.”
