The baseball world is mourning a star.
Robert “Bobby” Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, died in Portugal July 4 following a battle with stage 4 stomach cancer, the team confirmed. He was 44.
“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a July 4 statement released by the organization. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago.”
“He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend, and teammate,” he continued. “He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”
Jenks—who played for the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and the Boston Red Sox in 2011—proved his strength on and off the field with his loved ones.
“Everyone remembers him as a big guy and tough competitor who could throw 100, but he was really a big teddy bear off the field,” his Chicago teammate Paul Konerko recalled in a statement to Major League Baseball. “Bobby was such a big part of our success and was on the mound at the end of the game for some of the biggest wins in White Sox history. He truly will be missed by all.”
Despite officially retiring from the MLB in 2011, Jenks—dad to kids Zeno and Kate with wife Eleni Tzitzivacos, as well as Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson with ex-wife Adele Romkee—continued his career in baseball, managing the Frontier League’s Windy City Thunderbolts. After all, baseball was a staple in all facets of his life.
“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” he told SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I’m playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”
It had been a difficult chapter beyond just Jenks’ diagnosis—which he revealed to MLB.com in February—as his Los Angeles home burned down during the raging wildfires earlier this year amid his treatment. While most of his baseball memorabilia was lost to the fire, he had his World Series championship ring with him.
While Jenks mourned the loss of his collection, he was focusing on what really mattered during his battle, which wasn’t material items.
“Momma didn’t raise no Cubs fan here,” Jenks teased to the outlet. “My job is to do everything I can to keep myself in the best possible mental and physical state I can during the process, especially for the kids.”
