Phillies: Joe Girardi, Didi Gregorius teaching area students
By Matt Rappa
Phillies manager Joe Girardi and shortstop Didi Gregorius are going from the baseball diamond to virtual classrooms, teaching Philadelphia area students.
With the Major League Baseball season on hold, players and managers alike suddenly have free time this spring that they simply have not had for a very long time.
Among those include Philadelphia Phillies manager Joe Girardi and shortstop Didi Gregorius, who both came to the organization this past offseason after significant success with the New York Yankees.
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Earlier this week, Girardi put his time to heartwarming use, as he taught sixth- and seventh-grade online math classes of William M. Meredith School, helping to keep its students engaged and learning despite being away from their physical classrooms.
Now, Gregorius is set to do the same this coming Tuesday, May 19. The eight-year Major League veteran will conduct similar interactive classes with more Philadelphia Public Schools students.
And, while his skipper’s class was private, Gregorius’ will be publicly live-streamed and available to fans of all ages on the ProCamps Facebook page. It is part of ProCamps’ Virtual Guest Teacher series; former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Golden Tate and current Atlanta Braves infielder Dansby Swanson are among those who have participated.
Baseball is a game of numbers, so it's only fitting that Joe Girardi taught some virtual math classes to students from William M. Meredith School this week: https://t.co/UVl1wNU03N pic.twitter.com/k1TjVxqQd5
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 14, 2020
Girardi, who graduated from Northwestern University in 1986 with a degree in industrial engineering, taught students about the importance of math in baseball.
“Sometimes we don’t equate math to baseball, but it’s so heavily used on a daily basis,” he explained. “Math is really all about all of its different applications in life and how we use it, and it’s going to be that way more and more as we move forward.”
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One of the best parts about Girardi’s lecture was near the end, when he struck a deal.
“If we’re able to win the World Series,” he said, “you have to make a deal with [your teacher] that you get the day off of school for the parade.”
Hopefully we will have a 2020 season to make that deal possible.