On January 8th, Mets top prospect Dominic Smith joined local leaders and other players including Hall of Famer Dave Winfield at the first ever Gardena Serra Community Baseball Fest. Erikk Aldridge, executive director of the Inglewood Baseball Fund and LA Rockstars founder, noted the event was held to show how baseball has had a positive impact on the community, saying:

As the tenth anniversary of the LA Rockstars travel baseball program approached, our volunteers and supporters felt this was an appropriate and fun way to gather past players, their families and others from the community to show baseball still boasts a tremendous, positive impact to youth players and their families who may have been challenged by the financial demands of competitive youth baseball. When Derek Jeter was first coming up, he was inspired by Dave Winfield, and many of our kids were inspired in their time by Derek Jeter. We want to continue to honor that tradition and develop young men and women to continue to translate their on-field skills to become exemplary citizens and leaders within their communities off of the field.

During the event, Smith took part in a baseball clinic with the attendees, and he also put on a power display during the home run derby.

The event was held at Junipero Serra High School, which is Smith’s alma mater. It was part of an important day that was important to Smith himself:

Giving back! @TheRealSmith22 talks about how meaningful participating in the Community Baseball Fest was to him. https://t.co/rUnD4aoUIi⚾pic.twitter.com/oCCWYk2W3T

— New York Mets (@Mets) January 9, 2017

Overall, it was great to see Smith out there in better shape and ready to take the next step towards the major leagues next season. More importantly, it is even better seeing Smith contributing to his local community and conducting clinics to help the next Smith get drafted by a major league team.