Orioles donate playoff shares to late PR director’s charity and estate

The Baltimore Orioles enjoyed a remarkable season, running away with the American League East championship by 12 games over the New York Yankees. And though they may not have capped it the they wanted to on the field – they were eliminated in four games by the Kansas City Royals during the ALDS – they capped it off the field with a remarkable gesture that far outweighs their baseball success.

According to Dan Conolly of the Baltimore Sun, Orioles players have donated portions of their playoff bonus pool to charity and to the estate of public relations director Monica Barlow, who died in February after battling lung cancer. 

When the Orioles players met in September to vote on how they would divvy up whatever playoff money they would receive from the 2014 postseason, they made a point to remember late public relations director Monica Barlow.

Although the specific breakdown isn’t released to the public, one source who had direct knowledge of how the playoff shares were divided said the Orioles players chose two different ways to remember Barlow, who died in February at age 36 after a protracted battle with lung cancer.

The players assigned one cash award to Barlow’s estate and made a separate donation to the LUNGevity Foundation, which provides lung cancer research, educational programs and support for lung cancer patients. Barlow was heavily involved with the charity.

The story notes that Orioles received $7.44 million of the $62 million pot that’s divided among the ten postseason teams. How the teams break up that money is entirely up to them. In the Orioles case, they voted full shares to 52 players, which came to $125,288.04 bonus for each. They also awarded 6.25 partial shares in addition to the 36 cash awards to offer team staff members.

Though we don’t the specific amount, that they made sure to set some of that money aside to not only help out Barlow’s loved ones, but a charity that obviously meant a great deal to her, is a classy gesture. It’s apparent there’s a lot of togetherness in Baltimore, and that’s an especially nice thing to hear during the holiday season. 

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813