LAS VEGAS _ The opening news conference of baseball's winter meetings detailed the event's annual charity auction, and this year, it's hitting close to Kansas City.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, to be exact.
The 2018 Winter Meetings Charity Auction will benefit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the Jackie Robinson Foundation, MLB announced. The auction is organized by a cooperation between MLB, its 30 teams and MLB Network.
The timing is ideal for the museum. During the summer, vandals cut a water pipe at the Buck O'Neil Research and Education Center, causing significant damage.
"I was reminded of something that Buck O'Neil would so often say: Bad people will do bad things. Good people will go fix them," museum president Bob Kendrick said during Monday's news conference in Las Vegas. "And the good people stepped up to the plate. Even as much as the resources that they generated through this wonderful auction, and the support of Major League Baseball and the players' association, what it did was it renewed the spirit in people."
Kendrick said the money generated from the auction will go toward fixing the damage at the Buck O'Neil Research and Education Center, which occupies the former Paseo YMCA building.
Among the many items up for sale: Four tickets to the MLB All-Star week game and festivities, meet-and-greets with various players including Mike Trout, Eric Hosmer and several others, a chance to play catch or take batting practice at Wrigley Field.
Fans can bid on the items at MLB.com/wintermeetingsauction.
In its lifetime, the auction has raised $1.15 million.
