Cleveland Indians donate playoff earnings to Puerto Rico hurricane relief

The Cleveland Indians are donating earnings from their 2017 playoff run to efforts to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria.

The team is giving more than $36,000 to efforts in the communities of players Roberto Perez and Francisco Lindor, who are both from Puerto Rico, CBS Sports reported on Wednesday. The Indians’ wives association also donated $4,000.

The Indians made the donation ahead of their game against the Minnesota Twins in Puerto Rico Tuesday night. Cleveland won, 6-1.

Indians manager Terry Francona told reporters that he wasn’t surprised by the players’ donation.

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“That’s one of the things I’m probably most proud about that guys want to give back,” Francona said. “We’re so lucky. Most of us, including myself, aren’t capable of doing much else. Since we’re in this game and get treated really well, especially financially, to help out other people is awesome.”

Part of the donation will go toward Nuestra Escuela, or Our School, a community education program where Lindor was raised for 12 years.

Other funds will to go former MLB player Carlos Delgado’s organization to support a home for abused children, and the wives’ association’s gift will go to the island’s oldest institution for abused women.

Puerto Rico is still struggling to fully recover from the effects of Hurricane Maria, which struck the island last fall, killing scores of people and leading to widespread damage from which the island is still struggling to recover.

The territory experienced an island-wide blackout on Wednesday, though about 40,000 residents already lacked power at the time of the outage.