Arizona Diamondbacks fan Sherrie Darnell holds her winning check from the final 50/50 raffle of the 2025 season. (Photo by Paul Garcia/Cronkite News)

PHOENIX – The eruption of cheers from opposing fans echoed throughout the concourse of Chase Field recently as Shohei Ohtani belted his 54th home run to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a commanding 6-0 lead, spoiling the Arizona Diamondbacks’ late playoff push in their final home game of the season.

With the home team floundering, fans including Sherrie Darnell turned their attention to another one of their baseball traditions, the 50/50 raffle.

“I buy raffle tickets every game,” Darnell said. “I usually buy a ticket when I see the number start to climb to around $30,000.”

The total jackpot for the Diamondbacks’ final 50/50 charity raffle reached $63,504, bringing the season’s total to over $5.6 million, surpassing the team’s highest year total in history. The previous record was $5.5 million in 2023, which included sales from World Baseball Classic games and the Diamondbacks’ improbable run to the World Series.

Darnell, who purchased a $28 game ticket, possessed the winning numbers and walked away with $31,752.

It was a life-changing silver lining for Darnell that came during an otherwise disappointing game as the Dodgers won 8-0 and clinched the National League West on Arizona’s home field.

“I don’t know if I’ll buy anything,” Darnell said. “I’ll pay off my debt so I’m free and clear of everything.”

Before the game, as fans were piling into Chase Field, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo took time to praise the program, saying, “I love our foundation. They’re so good inside of the community. It is very unique and rare that you have an organization that’s willing to do something like that. The DBacks have really paved the way and shown how important it is to this community to stay involved, stay connected and make those contributions.”

Lovullo considers himself a 50/50 guy, but is obviously locked in during the game.

“I haven’t bought one myself, but my wife has,” Lovullo said. “She supports the cause any way possible. The closest she’s gotten was within four numbers.”

The winners aren’t the only ones gaining new opportunities through the raffle. The Diamondbacks organization has allocated nearly $3 million to youth sports and outreach programs this year alone through funds generated by the contest.

The 50/50 raffle supports three programs: the Youth Jersey Program, which provides uniforms to 116 youth baseball and softball teams; the Mike Kennedy Diamonds Back Field Building Program, which has built 44 fields over the past 25 years; and the RBI Program, a free baseball and softball league designed to provide youth in underserved communities with opportunities to play the sports.

Tara Trzinski, the Diamondbacks’ senior director of foundation business operations and community giving, says the team was able to start the RBI program due to the success of the 50/50 raffle.

“The RBI program is reviving baseball in inner cities like Phoenix,” Trzinski said. “It gives kids who are looking to take the next step to maybe go on to college, who don’t have the opportunities to play on a travel ball team.”

The Diamondbacks RBI All-Star baseball and softball teams won their regional tournament in Seattle, sending them to the RBI World Series at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida.

“It was really exciting providing kids that maybe wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to play this, you know, high-level elite level of baseball,” Trzinski said. “And they got to compete against other talent from across the country and have that opportunity to compete in the World Series.”

The Diamondbacks Nike RBI team won the senior division of the Nike RBI Baseball World Series in August, marking the first time that an RBI team from Arizona has won a World Series in any division.

Beyond the chance to win life-changing money through the raffle, Diamondback fans have the opportunity to be part of an initiative that gives back to their community.

“I think our fans appreciate the opportunity to be able to give back to charity in a way that’s also really fun for them because they have a chance to win a lot of money,” Trzinski said.

Ronna Layne, a Diamondbacks season ticket holder since the inaugural 1998 season, certainly appreciates the opportunity. Layne plays the 50/50 raffle at every game she attends, not to win, but to give back.

“The money that I give to the Diamondbacks 50/50 raffle cannot buy a field, I cannot buy a place of refuge for a child,” Layne said. “But the Diamondbacks provide through all my small donations game after game after game to give a child in our community that feeling I experience every time I come to this ballpark.”

One of those experiences occurred at a 2022 day game, where Layne and a friend she refers to as her “baseball husband” won the 50/50 raffle.

“We don’t do it for the prize, we do it for the contribution,” Layne said. “But it did buy our beers for that year.”

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