Watch: Jake Burger wears his daughter’s hospital band for his first home run of spring training
At the Texas Rangers annual team awards dinner in January, then-newly-acquired infielder Jake Burger explained that he changed his jersey number to 21 in honor of his daughter Penelope, who has Down syndrome.
At the time, Burger also revealed that she would have to receive heart surgery during spring training.
Burger was with his daughter until 11 p.m. on Wednesday and didn’t land in Surprise, Ariz. until 5 a.m. on Thursday. Later that day, the Rangers played the Seattle Mariners, and Burger hit his first home run of spring training.
“It’s tough. I feel for all the parents that have to go through that, and fortunately ours went smoothly, and Penelope is doing great. You know, it’s one of those things that you have to have faith in something when you’re in the waiting room there. My faith in God and my faith in my family, it just grew exponentially,” Burger said. “Just blessed and grateful to have Penelope on the mend and ready to come to some Rangers baseball.”
He hit the homer while wearing Penelope’s hospital band.
“Jake wearing Penelope’s hospital band has me in my feels,” his wife Ashlyn said in an Instagram story.
Burger also praised the hospital employees who operated and cared for his daughter.
“Unbelievable staff top to bottom. I don’t envy those doctors and nurses for what they deal with on a daily basis,” Burger said. “We go out here and play a children’s game and have fun with it. Being on that side of it, seeing what they do every single minute of every single day, it’s pretty incredible.”
