And, I’m talking about some off-the-field work here. Via Dan Graziano:

They didn’t boo Kyle Farnsworth at Joyce Kilmer Elementary School. Second-graders generally aren’t the booing kind, and anyway Farnsworth wasn’t there to pitch. He was there to talk.

This was back on May 21, when Farnsworth couldn’t so much as warm up in the Yankee Stadium bullpen without getting booed. So the trip out to Mahwah to talk to the kids about a couple of his favorite topics was a pleasant respite.

“Kids that age are little sponges,” Farnsworth said. “They take in everything they can.”

Farnsworth wasn’t there to talk about the Yankees, or about life as a big-league relief pitcher. Sure, some of that came up, but his real purpose for being there was to educate the youngsters on fitness and nutrition.

“This is something I care about,” Farnsworth said. “So I can tell them a little bit of what I know. Fitness, working out, but also nutrition. That’s the most important thing. You can work out all you want, but if you eat bad food, it’s not going to do you any good.”

Who’d have thought it? Kyle Farnsworth — man with a message. And a worthy one at that. It may not be enough to make the guy a fan favorite, but it’s at least something to think about the next time you boo him.

[Farnsworth] and his fiancee Shayla have plans in the works to publish a book on fitness and nutrition for school-age children. His son Stone is 6 years old and her children are 9 and 14, so there’s some personal motivation here. But more than anything, it’s a matter of Farnsworth having identified something he can help with and deciding to do it.

“Just trying to give back a little bit,” he said.

“Just be active,” Farnsworth said yesterday, when asked what his message to kids that young is. “Just get outside and do something instead of sitting around playing video games. I think that’s a big problem with kids these days. And then you start hearing about obesity — childhood obesity being a big problem. That’s scary.”

The feature from Graziano also says that Farnsworth works out five days a week in the offseason – and that his typical breakfast is eggs and/or oatmeal followed by a typical lunch of grilled chicken and rice. (Hey, no wonder why General Joe likes Kyle so much.)

Good job here by Farnsworth to try and make a difference. You have to admire that.