The Yankees have had some time to focus on other things after clinching the AL East division crown last weekend. Alex Rodriguez led the way on Monday, as he and some of his teammates visited St. Simon Stock, a Catholic middle school in the South Bronx.
According to The New York Times, the purpose of the visit was to celebrate the division title with students who go to school in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. The school is suffering from a steady drop in enrollment (224 students currently, down from 680 in the late ‘90s) and got a lift from the appearance of Rodriguez, who refused to take questions from a reporter, claiming he did not know the media would be covering the event.
Ray Negron, a Yankees special assistant, said Rodriguez was "trying to keep the focus on the kids, not him," although the superstar third baseman did take questions from a seventh grader after nearly being mobbed by the adoring students.
Rodriguez is active in various charities, primarily the Boys and Girls Clubs of America — an organization he joined in 1982 and remained a member of until he was drafted at the age of 18 in 1993. Though Monday's appearance was not on behalf of a specific charity, the Yankees’ visit could draw attention to the school's funding crisis. While Yankees players donated nothing but their time to the school, the students and teachers could not have been happier.
"He's someone I admire a lot," Carmen Gonzalez, a seventh grader, said of Rodriguez.