What Carlos Rodon did with money Yankees fans sent him on Venmo originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
New York Yankees fans really wanted Carlos Rodon to join their team during free agency.
So much so, that he was being sent money on Venmo from a bunch of fans hoping to lure him to the Big Apple.
The two-time All-Star ultimately left the San Francisco Giants for a six-year, $162 million deal with the Yankees in December.
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So what did Rodon do with the money he received from Yankees fans?
"I live in a really remote area in Indiana and hunting is a big part of our life over there, I guess. It's just what a lot of us do," Rodon told reporters on Thursday. "So when [my cousin and I] drive across the border, because I live on the border of Indiana and Illinois, we drive in a really, really rural, remote area. And we always drive by this house when we're going to one of our spots.
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"One day, we saw this little boy get off the bus, wooden shack in the middle of nowhere. My cousin was like, 'Man, we should do something nice for that kid someday.' I was like, 'You know what, you're right.' Couple years go past, we come by it this year, we're gonna go hunt over there and we're driving by and I'm like, 'Ethan, where's this house at?' This house is in the middle of this cornfield and I'm like, 'I don't see it.' It was burnt down. I drive past because I'm just oblivious sometimes, and he's like, 'No. Stop, turn around.' So we get out, talk to the kid.
"We got all that money from Venmo, we took that money and we did something nice for that kid over there. .... You asked the question about doing something nice, I should do something nice for the people of New York but they did something nice for me and some a kid in the middle of nowhere in Illinois no one knows about. So we had a nice Christmas for him and my cousin did a few other things for the family.
"So thank you to the fans of New York. You helped some 15-year-old in Illinois that doesn't really have much and whose house burnt down."
That's awesome.
It's a bit odd for fans to send money to a professional athlete who's about to sign a $100 million-plus contract, but kudos to Rodon for putting it to good use.
