Pittsburgh Pirates star pitcher Paul Skenes stopped by Raising Cane’s to give back to veterans less than 24 hours after winning the National League Cy Young award
Paul Skenes gave back to veterans less than 24 hours after winning the Cy Young award(Image: Getty Images)
Fresh off winning the 2025 National League Cy Young award, Paul Skenes immediately got back to work — quite literally.
On Wednesday, Skenes was named the latest recipient of the accolade given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball, comfortably beating out Philadelphia Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez and Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto after recording an MLB-best 1.97 ERA this season.
Less than 24 hours later, Skenes — who recently had a hilarious airport run-in with a fan — wasn’t back on the mound or in the weight room. Rather, the Pittsburgh Pirates ace was at a Raising Cane’s in West Palm Beach spending time with veterans.
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Long before Skenes blossomed into one of the MLB’s best young arms, the Fullerton, California native dreamed of someday becoming a fighter pilot. He nearly pursued the career full-time, attending the Air Force Academy for two years before eventually shifting his sights toward baseball.
While chatting to a trio of veterans — two of which served together for five years, the other for four — Skenes fondly reminisced on his time at Air Force. At one point in the conversation, the 23-year-old hilariously conceded that he’s only ever taken four buses to games — while in Colorado Springs, the team traveled exclusively by C-17 cargo plane.
Skenes’ commitment to those who served stretches far beyond simply handing out chicken finger Box Combos or listening attentively to stories from overseas.
With the help of Raising Cane’s, he raised $500,000 for the Gary Sinise Foundation – a nonprofit that supports America’s veterans, first responders and their families.
Paul Skenes spoke with veterans while working a Raising Cane’s ‘shift’ in West Palm Beach(Image: Getty Images)
“If you really think about it, baseball is pretty low on the totem pole of things that matter in this world,” Skenes said. “It’s really easy to get wrapped up in the game, but the highs and the lows in baseball aren’t adversity — definitely not to the extent that the men and women who fight for our country face adversity. So it really puts things in perspective.
“The $500,000 we’ve raised will be used very directly to help veterans, from building houses to putting on events for veterans and their kids, fallen soldiers and airmen.”
From a very young age, Skenes’ parents instilled in him an unrelenting desire to give back. “I think he’s taken it to a much different level than anything that we were able to do,” his father, Craig, exclusively told Mirror U.S. Sports.
“But we’ve tried to always have him involved with church and whatever charitable events were available to do at the time.”
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During his tenure at Air Force, Skenes worked multiple times with Folds of Honor — a non-profit that provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of fallen or disabled service members. Ahead of the 2025 MLB campaign, he announced his plans to donate $100 to the Gary Sinise Foundation for every strikeout he recorded, which came out 216.
As Craig noted, however, there’s always more that can be done. “We’re hoping he’s able to even do more with them in the coming years,” he said of his son. “Especially with a little bit more visibility with what he’s been doing [in baseball].”
Few star athletes can resonate more with the veteran community than Skenes. Two of his uncles attended the Naval Academy before serving, with another still actively in the Coast Guard.
Coming out of high school, Skenes appeared poised to follow in his relatives’ footsteps. As a largely overlooked two-way player, his only Division I offers were from Navy and Air Force.
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“The academics were the Plan A and the athletics were the Plan B,” Craig explained. “And I think seeing his uncles and what they were able to do — not only in terms of the military service, but even coming out of the military and some of the roles that they had on the civilian side, different jobs — I think he saw that as just a great opportunity.”
Though Skenes ultimately decided to leave the Air Force and transfer to LSU in 2024, the right-handed pitcher still keeps the invaluable lessons he learned from the academy close to his heart.
“The Air Force Academy and the military as a whole is built around a few key concepts and core ideas, and I think one of them is ‘how you do everything is how you do anything,’” Skenes said. “If you live your life doing things the right way — which is what the Academy and military teaches you — you’re going to be set in whatever you do.
“So, I went to the Air Force Academy for a reason. Not anyone can go there, so you start with a pretty high bar of the individuals that are there. You get there and it’s an environment that’s made to make everybody there better. So, the two years I spent there I got better as a person and as a baseball player.”