After standing up for his teammate after being bullied online, Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah was awarded Dove Men+Care’s first ever Sponsorship for Sportsmanship.
The sponsorship, which will be officially awarded to Manoah before Tuesday’s game against the New York Yankees at Rogers Center, will raise $100,000 in proceeds that will be donated to charity.
The athletic act in question was featured on social media on Sept. 14 in an interaction between Manoah and TSN Montreal radio host Matthew Ross, after Ross spoke negatively about Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk’s weight. Bell Media is the parent company of TSN and CTV.
“It’s cute and all, but it’s also embarrassing for the sport. Giving guys like this celebrity feeds negative stereotypes,” Ross wrote in a now-deleted tweet in response to a video of Kirk running home from the first plate posted by Toronto Blue Jays.
Manoah quickly came to his teammate’s defense, tweeting back to Ross: “What’s actually embarrassing for the sport is people who go by the name Matthew and haven’t played a day in the big leagues because they think they can do the narration and control stereotypes. Tell this 8-year-old who is 10 pounds overweight to stop now.
“Just step away from the keyboard and let go [Kirk] inspire these kids to keep chasing their dreams and striving for greatness,” he added shortly thereafter.
Eventually, after some back-and-forth between Manoah and Ross, Ross deleted both his tweets and Twitter account. Days later, he posted an apology from his podcast’s social media accounts.
“I want to offer my sincere apologies to Alejandro Kirk, Alek Manoah, the Toronto Blue Jays, Jays fans and anyone else who was offended by my initial tweet,” he said.
“The words were harsh. The mood was inappropriate and I deeply regret it. Period.”
In an interview with CTV News Toronto on Tuesday, Manoah said he meant what he said “from the heart.”
“There are a lot of trolls out there,” Manoah said. “But the biggest thing I saw about that negative tweet was that it came from a verified account [..] He obviously has a voice that people listen to and I didn’t agree with the way he used his platform to inject negativity into one of our players.”
Manoah spoke highly of Kirk, saying he “plays and works so hard”.
“He’s a great teammate and he inspires a lot of people to want to be great.”
Regarding Kirk and Manoah’s relationship, Manoah said they are close both “on and off the field.”
“I have a pretty close bond with him and we both know that,” he said. “We don’t even really need to talk much about it. He knows I have his back no matter what, I know he has my break no matter what – he will always be my brother.”
After being told he was the recipient of Dove Men+Care’s first “sports sponsorship,” Manoah decided to donate the proceeds to KidsSport.
“KidsSports is an organization that enables the next generation of players to keep playing – they come from all kinds of backgrounds, they’re not all the stereotypical athletes,” he said.
“It is very difficult to reach this stage [in the MLB]so why are we throwing extra negative connotations at kids if it’s hard enough already?”
When asked what he hopes fans would take away from all of this, Manoah said he hopes they never let negativity hold them back.
“Keep pursuing your dreams no matter what,” he said.
“There will be a lot of negative people, a lot of people who try to put you down, but keep following your dreams and working hard as long as you love what you do.”