By CRAIG ROGERS
Although the New York Mets lost their season opener to the Washington Nationals on Monday the team scored three home runs, making it a winning day for the YMCA of Greater New York.
Those home runs made it possible for the organization to receive $6,000 from Citibank.Through the partnership of the New York Mets and Citibank, the Citi Thank You Home Run for Communities Program was launched on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, we were one home run short of getting the victory but that is okay,” said Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson at a Downtown news conference. “There are 161 games left over the course of the season. We will, hopefully, hit a lot more home runs and rise a lot of money for the great community initiatives [Citibank] has going on.”
The program stipulates that for every Mets home run the bank will give to one of four designated charities a cash donation of $2,000. The charities will alternate among each other during the Mets 2014 season. They include City Harvest, United Neighborhood Houses, United Services Organizations (USO) and the YMCA.
The gregarious slugger was viewed as the best choice to be the ambassador of the program due to his achievements on and off of the field. He has participated in several other charity projects and finished fourth for the American League’s Most Valuable Player award as a Yankee in 2011. Granderson also represents Major League Baseball for the ‘Let’s Move!’ campaign, which was spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama in 2010.
The program will continue on through the Mets regular 162-game season.
Each Community group received an initial donation of $5,000 to get the program off to a positive start.
By the way, Granderson went 0 for 5 Monday with three strikeouts.
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