For his 44th birthday just a month ago, former Chicago White Sox closer Bobby Jenks made an unusual request of his family: a tent. It wasn’t a gift he could use immediately, given his current health struggles, but rather a symbol of hope. Jenks dreams of one day taking his family on a European road trip, camping along the way— a plan his mother-in-law, Kate Souglides, acknowledges may never come to fruition. “We understand that may not be possible,” she said. “But we don’t want to break his spirit either.”
Now residing in Portugal with his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, and her family, Jenks’ days are a stark contrast to his glory years on the mound. Once a dominant force in Major League Baseball, the six-foot-four, 275-pound pitcher—often compared to a modern Paul Bunyan by former teammate A.J. Pierzynski—helped the White Sox secure their only World Series title of the last century in 2005. His career, marked by 173 saves and a ranking of 75th all-time, was cut short after six seasons, but his legacy in Chicago remains indelible.
Today, that legacy is overshadowed by hardship. On January 7, 2025, Jenks’ family home in California was destroyed in the Palisades wildfires, reducing mementos of his baseball career—his first game ball, first win, first strikeout, first save—to ash. “It was a shock to the system,” Jenks reflected. The loss was compounded later that month when, after months of fatigue, pulmonary embolisms in October, and a hospitalization for jaundice, he received a devastating diagnosis: Stage 4 adenocarcinoma, a terminal form of stomach cancer that has spread to other organs.
The news shattered his wife, Eleni, who ran from the room in tears, and left an indelible mark on his father-in-law, Antonio Da Cunha, who recalled the sadness in Jenks’ eyes. With no cure available, only treatment remains an option. The family, having dropped medical insurance years ago due to cost and lack of prior health concerns, now faces steep expenses. Living overseas has further complicated coverage, forcing Jenks to sign baseballs to help fund his care.
His treatment regimen is grueling: weekly doctor visits every Monday, immunotherapy on Wednesdays, and a chest-attached device dispensing chemotherapy for two additional days, supplemented by radiation. The process leaves him exhausted, yet he reserves what energy he can for his children, 11-year-old Zeno and four-year-old Kate. For Zeno, old enough to understand but too young to fully cope, the ordeal has been particularly challenging.
Despite the bleak prognosis, Jenks clings to hope. “I guarantee you, everybody thinks about death on a daily basis,” he said during a phone interview with The Athletic earlier this month. “It’s just that people don’t usually have an actual day on theirs.” His voice, though weakened by illness, sharpened with resolve as he spoke of his faith. “What gets me through this is my faith,” he affirmed, acknowledging the uncertainty of his timeline—six months or three years—while vowing to fight every step of the way.
Those close to him oscillate between hope and reality. Pierzynski, the longtime White Sox catcher, described Jenks as “a larger-than-life figure,” a sentiment that now extends beyond the baseball diamond to his battle with cancer. Amid the treatments and despair, Jenks holds onto that tent as a beacon of normalcy. “Just being myself, and living a normal life again. That’s my motivation,” he said.
As the former closer faces his toughest game yet, his spirit remains unbroken, a testament to the resilience that defined his time in the spotlight.