Opening day for some Major League Baseball players proved to be more unifying than it was competitive.
Several big leaguers are starting their season with Not For Sale's Free2Play Campaign -- an effort that funds athletic programs for children who have been trafficked or exploited around the globe.
Jeremy Affeldt, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, is pledging $250 for every strikeout he has during the season for the second year in a row, CNN reports.
"This is an opportunity as ball players for us to join together as one unit, as a team, to come together and to support something that's very, very important," Affeldt told the news source. "Especially for people who dream."
According to new statistics from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, only about one out of every 100 people trafficked is typically rescued, the Associated Press reported.
"At any one time, 2.4 million people suffer the misery of this humiliating and degrading crime," Yuri Fedotov, head of the Office on Drugs and Crime, explained.
Seventeen different major league players on nine teams are part of the campaign, but even players who haven't signed on can still make a difference -- Not For Sale also launched a Facebook fantasy baseball game, in which users can pledge money based on their favorite players' performance.
For Stephen Drew, the Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop who's pledging $500 for every homerun he hits, the global perspective is enough to hit home for him. The father of two young boys told CNN:
"And I look at that and I [think] what if their dreams were ruined at the age of 10? As a father I'd be outraged."
Learn more about the Free2Play Facebook game here.
Get involved with Not For Sale here.