Mets INF T.J. Rivera gives back to former high school

Mets fans already fell in love with infielder T.J. Rivera this past season. Now with his good acts this offseason, I’m sure we’ll all just fall in love with him more.

Rivera is a Bronx native, as we all know. He attended Lehman High School, obviously in the Bronx, and went back to visit this past offseason. As someone who went to undergrad and grad school just a few miles away, I couldn’t not tell this story of his good doings once I read it.

While visiting the school in the offseason, Rivera found out about the high school’s ruined mound, which caused the team to play all of their baseball games on the road last season. That doesn’t seem fair does it? Especially for a school that has already bred a major leaguer. Well, Rivera obviously had the same thinking, and wanted to do something about it.

He worked with the Mets Foundation to get Lehman High School their mound back. The Lions (Lehman’s team) played in home territory for the first time in over a year, thanks to Rivera.

Rivera has only been in the majors for a year and he’s already doing good both on and off the field. In fact, he’s already making an impact both on and off the field as well. We all saw his potential last season, and we all saw his performance in the WBC. Off the field, while he was at his former high school, he spoke to a gym full of students — including both the baseball team and the softball team. One of the players on the softball team started crying while asking Rivera a question — that’s the strong impact that he has.

We all know how great of a person Curtis Granderson is. He’s been giving back to the community for years, and rightfully won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2016. Maybe Rivera will follow in his footsteps.