Something changes in a man when he becomes a parent. Heck, maybe everything changes. Priorities get rearranged. Selfishness vanishes. And emotions he doesn’t know even existed show themselves.
And, particularly in the case of Buster Posey, the star catcher of the San Francisco Giants, purpose becomes more clear.
“It’s perspective,” Posey told Yahoo Sports this week. “Until you have kids, it’s hard to understand the love you can have for a child.”
Buster and his wife, Kristen, have 4-year-old twins, a boy named Lee and a girl named Addison. Without the twins, the Poseys probably wouldn’t have undertook the mission they did this week. With Kristen at his side, Buster announced Wednesday plans for a wide-ranging philanthropic effort to raise money and awareness for pediatric cancer.
Part of this is a gala the Giants will host in September, in which famous basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale will join the Poseys. Another part is a new cap that Buster designed with New Era. It features a gold ribbon for pediatric cancer awareness and “BP28” across the back. The cap is on sale now at MLB.com and the Giants team store and will be available Monday at Lids locations and on NewEraCap.com. A portion of the proceeds of each cap, 28% to be exact, will go toward pediatric cancer research.
 | @mikeoz | |
First look: Here's the cap #SFGiants star Buster Posey designed with @NewEraCap to benefit pediatric cancer research pic.twitter.com/53GZf3Ytku
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“Kristen and I always felt like in the position we’re in, we want to able to help,” Posey said. “But we didn’t want to just jump into something just to do it. We wanted to get into something that we truly feel strongly about.”
Being parents set them on the path. That path became more purposeful when Kristen came in contact with a Florida woman named Melissa Wiggins, whose son Cannon was diagnosed at 20 months with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer for which kids under 5 are at risk. This part especially hit home: Cannon is only four days older than the Posey twins.
The Wiggins family has written a book about Cannon and begun their own foundation, Cannonball Kids. A mutual friend put Wiggins and Kristen Posey in contact. Since then they’ve been sharing e-mails and text messages. They’ve never actually met, but come September the Wiggins will join the Poseys at their gala in San Francisco.
 | @SFGiants | |
Buster & Kristen Posey announced their philanthropic program, and then promptly met with children battling cancer. pic.twitter.com/T2hMdKV2lb
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Learning Cannon’s story, absorbing what the parents had gone through — it was enough for Buster Posey to realize this was the cause he wanted to get behind.
“We realized this is something we’re passionate about,” Posey said. “To see a child having to go through chemotherapy, losing all their hair. Some of the images are to be honest with you, they’re disturbing. It’s hard to look at. You almost have to look at them, though, to realize it’s a real thing that’s out there. Not everyone is the smiling, happy bald-headed kid. It’s hard to even think about my kids in that light.”
As the Poseys learned about pediatric cancer, they discovered that, according to the Coalition Against Childhood Cancer, only four percent of the tax-funded dollars given to cancer research are allotted to fight pediatric cancer.
“It seemed backward to us,” Posey said.
| @SFGiants | |
Buster, true to his word. #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/83jtAZRgbu
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As part of the Poseys' efforts to help, there will be a non-financial component too. They’ll host cancer patients at the Giants’ AT&T Park every month. They’ll also visit hospitals and connect with families who went through what the Wiggins did.
“It’s as simple as trying to put a smile on a kid’s face,” Posey said.
As a father, he knows just how precious that can be.
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