Ok, so he was a bust as our closer (though I still think there's a valid injury argument to be made), but you cannot deny that Eric Gagne is a class act.
To mark the Thanksgiving holiday, the Brewers official site had an article about the team and charitable giving and pointed to Gagne has the player who gave the most this season, including a $50,000 donation to the MACC Fund - the largest single donation they've ever received.
Gagne's numbers don't even include the money spent to buy out Miller Park near the end of the season and give the tickets away for free.
"In 2008, according to Sprangers, Brewers Charities infused $850,000 into the community, about half of which came directly from players. That total did not include the value of the more than 60,000 tickets distributed by the team as part of its "Brewers Buddies" program, or the 5,000 tickets purchased and then given away by reliever Eric Gagne on Sept. 25, when the Brewers were in the middle of their National League Wild Card push.
After signing a one-year, $10 million contract with the team last winter, Gagne told Sprangers he wanted to focus his efforts on children's health initiatives. That conversation led to a $50,000 donation to the MACC Fund (Midwest Athletes against Childhood Cancer), the largest single donation in the charity's history.
Gagne was the team's leading contributor to community causes, donating about $200,000 in 2008. Sprangers said starters Jeff Suppan and Ben Sheets, center fielder Mike Cameron and infielder Bill Hall were also active in various initiatives, and each identified their own areas of interest. Suppan, who had a $100,000 per-season donation written into his four-year Brewers contract, has been particularly supportive of causes that benefit U.S. military families. Cameron expressed desire to help charities that benefit single-parent families. Hall has become a leading supporter of the Milwaukee chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which raises funds for breast cancer research."
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