Number 83
St. Paul Saints' Seigo Masubuchi Runs a Marathon for St. Jude's
Featured Focus:
Athlete-Driven Impact, Community Programs, Health & Wellness
Scope of Impact: Local
Seigo Masubuchi, the St. Paul Saints' "international man of mystery," ran his 96th marathon earlier this month at CHS Field, the stadium for the Minor League Baseball team — transforming a personal athletic feat into a powerful community fundraiser. Here’s what you should know:
Purpose: This event aims to raise funds for children's cancer research at St. Jude Children's Hospital, building on a prior successful marathon for the Rebecca Veeck Foundation.
Key Players: Masubuchi, a resilient athlete recovering from health setbacks, partnered with Minnesota Twins pitcher Randy Dobnak and his wife Ariel, who have a deep, personal commitment to St. Jude to make this initiative possible.
Community Engagement: Fans could join Masubuchi for any number of laps, fostering broad participation and leveraging the ballpark atmosphere for a collective charitable effort.
All the planets had to align for this initiative to be successful, and boy did they. It was extremely well thought-out from a variety of different aspects:
First, there’s local connection with the Saint Paul Saints MiLB team and Seigo Masubuchi, immediately making this something to take note of. Second, there’s the unique profile and journey of Masubuchi himself, who ran his 96th marathon during the initiative — 96 marathons?!? — making for an incredible attention-grabber. Third, the partnership with Randy and Ariel Dobnak expands the audience from MiLB to MLB, and brings an authentic connection to Saint Jude’s. And last but definitely not least, holding the event on a game-day (which we’re sure caused some logistical challenges for the team) made it easy for fans to get involved in-person, and primed them to donate.
If you peel the onion one layer deeper, there’s also a nice element of symbolism between Masubuchi’s perseverance and resilience (did we mention…96 marathons?!?) to the same characteristics of kids fighting cancer. It brings the initiative full circle, and makes for a fantastic way to bring the two local teams, and the greater community, together for a great cause.
YOUR NEXT PLAY:
Social impact isn’t limited to the big leagues. There’s so much creativity in minor league baseball, and across all sports in general, that doesn’t always get enough recognition from the mainstream media. This is why WIN | WIN is here, right? Our challenge to you is to look into different opportunities, similar to what the St. Paul Saints put together. And if your initiative is centered around impact, WIN | WIN will talk about it! Deal?
Local coverage of Masubuchi’s 2022 marathon run at CHS Field, his first after navigating two medical experiences of his own.
The official MiLB page of the team, including information on their players and their community impact programs.
The daughter of Mike Veeck, former owner of the Saints, was the inspiration for Masubuchi’s 2022 run as she struggled with Batten’s Disease.
There are a variety of different ways that companies and groups can partner with St. Jude for global impact.
Twins’ player Randy Dobnak connects with St. Jude patient Brody, sharing their baseball passion.
Masubuchi celebrates baseball’s role in bringing Japanese culture to America through a sister cities initiative.
