The Marlins' Dee Gordon is donating $200 to some of the poorest communities in the Dominican Republic for every base he steals this season.
He has teamed up with Food for the Hungry, which has helped the world's poorest people for decades, and its newer baseball-themed, D.R.-centric "Striking Out Poverty" program last year.
It started for Gordon after he hit his first big-time payday: a five-year, $50 million contract extension in January 2016. He was doing well on the field, and he wanted to do good off it.
"I could've went in the inner cities and just handed out money, but I didn't want to do that," said Gordon, 29. "I wanted to help on a broader scale. I just thought it was the best way to humble myself and show myself I was grateful for what I've gotten, by helping somebody I didn't know."
In January, he visited the Dominican and went to remote Camaron, which had only recently gotten running water. Then Gordon, who has 14 steals this season, learned the water was unclean. "That's when I knew what I had to do; I had to help that community," he said.
Gordon's solution: footing the bill, of more than $15,000, for the village's water treatment facility.
Sun Sentinel
