{"id":117890,"date":"2026-01-30T23:13:50","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117890\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T23:13:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:13:50","slug":"jazz-chisholm-jr-shows-why-he-was-born-to-play-in-the-bronx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117890\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Chisholm Jr. shows why he was born to play in the Bronx"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was just a few weeks ago that Jazz Chisholm Jr.\u2019s <\/a>name was being brought up in trade rumors. The Yankees were believed to be in on Bo Bichette<\/a>, who eventually signed the Mets, and their dynamic second basemen no doubt attracted some tantalizing offers.<\/p>\n

But as you saw Chisholm walk around and greet kids at Community School 55 in the Bronx on Friday morning, you couldn\u2019t help but feel that he belongs in pinstripes. Sure, the Yankees have been accused of being too passive in their pursuit for new talent<\/a>, but that doesn\u2019t pertain to him.<\/p>\n

Recently, MLB TV ranked him as the No. 2 second baseman in baseball; he earned the second All-Star nod of his career last season, and definitively proved something that he\u2019s long held: The lights aren\u2019t too bright for him. If anything, it\u2019s almost a shame he had to play five years in the mostly empty confines of Miami’s loanDepot Park.<\/p>\n

And though what he was doing on Friday doesn\u2019t directly translate to on-the-field results, it does speak highly to his character \u2014\u00a0and good character does make for good clubhouses.<\/p>\n

On this day, Chisholm paved the way for the elementary school\u2019s new computer lab, gifting 25 touchscreen laptops, an interactive screen, a PlayStation 5 and, just for kicks, brand new Jordans for members of the fifth-grade class.<\/p>\n

This type of stuff isn\u2019t unheard of \u2014 athletes often do charity work, and the Jazz Chisholm Foundation is no different \u2014 but as someone who has been to dozens of these events, this one rang a little truer. Chisholm has been to this school three times. One hallway is adorned with his signed poster, the computer lab has his likeness on the wall\u00a0and the kids greet him like an old friend.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s personal for him: When he was a kid growing up in the Bahamas, Gary Sheffield visited his Little League team and helped rebuild some fields there. It\u2019s one of the reasons he\u2019s excited to represent Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic <\/a>\u2014\u00a0so the kids back in the Bahamas, a British Commonwealth \u2014\u00a0can see one of their own on an international stage. He also pointed out that CC Sabathia helped him out when he was 16, signing his first professional contract.<\/p>\n

\"Yankees<\/p>\n

Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. after his 5th inning homer in Game 3 of the ALDS on Oct 7, 2025 at Yankee Stadium. Credit: Newsday\/J. Conrad Williams Jr.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the Bahamas for two weeks straight this offseason and hanging out with kids in my Little League and having baby boys coming up and saying, \u2018You\u2019re my superhero. I want to be like you,\u2019 \u201d Chisholm said. \u201cHow can you not be moved by something like that? You want to do better for your community, especially from where you came from and you know how hard it is to get where I\u2019m at now, you know? It\u2019s just something I genuinely want to do. I wish every athlete would want to be genuinely giving back to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

It certainly felt genuine. The kids chanted his name as he walked into the auditorium, and when he told them that it was his grandmother\u2019s birthday, they broke out in song; Chisholm taped the whole thing, grinning. He was escorted to the music room, where three children played him another song from\u00a0\u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d and then cut the ribbon to the computer lab.<\/p>\n

The grade-schoolers liked the new tech just fine, but the big draw were the Jordans. It may not seem like a big deal, comparatively, but Chisholm, who didn\u2019t grew up with much, knows that kids with tough socioeconomic backgrounds deserve more than just the necessities. They should have joy, too.<\/p>\n

And there was plenty of joy . . . and grins . . . and a few screeches.<\/p>\n

\"Yankees<\/p>\n

Yankees second baseman\u00a0Jazz Chisholm Jr. signs autographs for the students at CS 55 on Friday. Credit: Ed Quinn<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every kid that’s raised in the hood has to be raised the way we were raised,\u201d he said. \u201cI just know how these kids are. I\u2019ve been in this building a couple times and I know that they just genuinely love that we come here and give our time. It\u2019s not about the things they\u2019re getting, you know? I know they\u2019re going to be super excited about what they\u2019re getting but I just love that I came here and just gave a poster that I signed one day and everybody was just happy for that . . .\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way these kids love is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of that has very little to do with baseball, but baseball is better for it, and so is the Bronx.<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/p>\n

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She’s been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was just a few weeks ago that Jazz Chisholm Jr.\u2019s name was being brought up in trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,321,63,51963,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-117890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-nyc","tag-spadjacent","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}