Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and six players from the team's back-to-back World Series championship roster will be honored at a Beverly Hills charity dinner benefiting cancer research and treatment, alongside actor Anthony Anderson, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for health advocacy and philanthropic efforts. The Harold and Carole Pump Foundation's 26th Annual Celebrity Dinner is set for the Beverly Hilton, where organizers say auction proceeds will support cancer research and treatment. Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernández, Kiké Hernández, Miguel Rojas, Will Smith and Andy Pages will each receive Lifetime Achievement Awards alongside Roberts.
The honors come shortly after Roberts became the fastest manager in Major League Baseball history to reach 1,000 career regular-season wins, hitting the milestone in 1,166 decisions on June 30, according to MLB.com. As MyNewsLA.com reports, the dinner is expected to draw a wide swath of sports and entertainment names, including Bo Jackson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, D.L. Hughley and Tom Morello, along with Magic Johnson, Mike Tyson, Julius Erving, Allen Iverson and Allyson Felix. The evening will feature silent and live auctions offering sports memorabilia, travel experiences and VIP tickets.
Anderson's Long Fight for Diabetes Awareness
Anderson, known for starring as Andre “Dre” Johnson on ABC's “black-ish,” was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2001 at age 31 and lost his father to complications from the disease. He addressed the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions in June 2025 to push for preventive healthcare and diabetes awareness among Black men, according to the American Diabetes Association. His philanthropic résumé also includes the annual Anthony Anderson Celebrity Golf Classic, support for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Los Angeles Mission and the American Diabetes Association.
Per the same MyNewsLA report, Anderson said he was honored to be recognized by the Harold & Carole Pump Foundation and to join an evening focused on giving back. He added that community, advocacy and collective support can improve health outcomes and help people affected by cancer.
A Foundation Rooted in Family Loss
The foundation was established by twin brothers Dana and David Pump in honor of their parents — father Harold, who died of cancer in 2000, and mother Carole, who passed away in 2012 — according to Black Tie Magazine. The brothers have leaned on their sports and entertainment connections over the years to recruit celebrity donors and build the annual event into a fixture of the Los Angeles charity calendar.
The organization works with the Northridge Hospital Foundation, and MyNewsLA reports the Pump Foundation has raised more than $10.5 million to date. Foundation funds specifically support the Carole Pump Women's Center, the Harold and Carole Pump Department of Radiation Oncology, the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Cancer Center and the Pump Family Infusion Center at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in the San Fernando Valley, according to the Northridge Hospital Foundation. Separate reporting on the foundation's 25th anniversary gala last year put its lifetime giving at more than $13.3 million directed to cancer treatment and research programs at Northridge and other charities — a figure that reflects the organization's full 25-plus year history rather than the more recent total cited by MyNewsLA.
Humanitarian Honorees Bring Contrasting Résumés
This year's Humanitarian Award will go to Dennis Gilbert and Nick Rowley, two men with markedly different careers built around advocacy. Gilbert co-founded the Beverly Hills Sports Council in 1984, later served as special assistant to Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf beginning in 2000, and funded the construction of Dennis Gilbert Field at Los Angeles Southwest College, per the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In 2002 he also founded the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation to help ill or financially struggling scouts, running it for 17 years before merging it into Major League Baseball's Baseball Assistance Team program.
Rowley, founder of Trial Lawyers for Justice and a veteran medic who served in the U.S. Air Force and Army, has secured more than $3.5 billion in verdicts and settlements while funding educational centers and community initiatives in the United States, Costa Rica, Kenya and Bhutan, according to Trial Guides. He was emancipated at age 16 before enlisting in the military at 17.
A Dodgers Roster Fresh Off Back-to-Back Titles
The heavy Dodgers presence on this year's honoree list follows the franchise's back-to-back World Series titles in 2024 and 2025, including a win over Toronto in last year's Fall Classic. Several of the same players — Betts, Kiké Hernández and Roberts among them — were also part of the team's recent White House visit, which Hoodline covered in its report on Kiké Hernández skipping that trip while teammates attended. The Beverly Hills dinner offers a different kind of spotlight, one built around philanthropy rather than the postseason.
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