Citizens Bank Park was the place to be on Friday night, as 15,000 people attended Carson Wentz's second annual charity softball game, benefiting his AO1 Foundation.
Before the events of the evening, Carson Wentz talked to the media more about the AO1 Foundation and fielded some questions about his charity. Wentz said right now his foundation is focusing on three service ministries: the Haiti Sports Complex, the Outdoor Ministry and the Thy Kingdom Crumb food truck. The Haiti Sports Complex is right on schedule with its construction, as they are putting in turf for the soccer fields they will boast. At the end of his press conference, Wentz revealed that in addition to Thy Kingdom Crumb, his foundation will soon be putting out an ice cream truck that will give out free ice cream to those in need (the name of the ice cream truck will be kept secret until the official announcement coming soon).
Home Run Derby
After the conclusion of his interview, Wentz joined the rest of his Eagles teammates on the field to watch the home run derby participants. Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Nate Sudfeld, Corey Clement, Richard Rodgers, Stefan Wisniewski, Jake Elliott, Brandon Graham, and Jason Kelce were this year's participants. A majority of the participants ended up with two or less total home runs in their round of hitting, but the two standouts were Richard Rodgers and Jake Elliott. Rodgers and Elliott hit six and 13 home runs respectfully to advance to the final round. Both players were exhausted from their previous dingers (a majority of Rodgers' home runs were actually going into the seats), so their numbers in the final round fell. Rodgers ended up becoming champion, hitting five home runs compared to Jake Elliott's four.
Softball Game
Once Richard Rodgers won his home run derby trophy, the softball game was ready to get underway. The coaches did not end up picking their rosters this season like they did in 2018, instead, it was predetermined the offense would play the defense.
The game got off to a rapid, but boring, start as both team only put up four runs in the first three innings. However, once the steady pitcher got exhausted and started throwing some meatballs, that's when the real game got started. Dinger after dinger kept being hit over the fence by both squads, as the runs started to pile up. Back to back seven-run innings by both teams led to the defense taking a 16-14 lead into the final inning of play. The tight end trio of Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert and Richard Rodgers were due up for the offense as they wanted to walk-off in South Philly. Their wish came true, after back-to-back-to-back jacks from the tight ends ended the game in style. Those fireworks were a precursor to the actual fireworks that went off after the game. We recapped the three biggest standouts of the game here.
Between-Innings Shenanigans
Softball wasn't the only game being played on the field last night, as a host of wacky games were done when innings were done.
First was a bigfoot race, as teams of three walked together to get to home plate. The offense (Jordan Mailata, Jordan Howard, Richard Rodgers) defeated the defense in the race.
Next was a unique toilet paper toss, as a team of Rick Lovato and Jake Elliott faced Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson. The special teams' team easily defeated the offensive linemen thanks to Elliott's soft feet.
Last was the ping-pong ball shaking contest, where rookies Miles Sanders and JJ Arcega-Whiteside both had a box of pin-pong balls strapped to their backs and the goal was to shake every ball out. Sanders was declared the winner.
Final Tallies
The 15,000 people who attended the softball game helped raise over $500,000 for the AO1 Foundation. The funds that were raised will be used towards the Haiti Sports Complex, the Outdoor Ministry, Thy Kingdom Crumb, and the upcoming unnamed ice cream truck.
Over the past two years, the AO1 Softball Game has raised over $1.3 Million.
