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Baseball may be on hiatus, but Pete Alonso still managed to hit it out of the park for one Amazin’ fan in need of a boost. The All-Star slugger brought cancer-stricken and lifelong Mets fanatic Kathleen Selig to happy tears on Wednesday by sending her an encouraging video over social media. Selig recently learned she …
Baseball may be on hiatus, but Pete Alonso still managed to hit it out of the park for one Amazin’ fan in need of a boost.
The All-Star slugger brought cancer-stricken and lifelong Mets fanatic Kathleen Selig to happy tears on Wednesday by sending her an encouraging video over social media.
Selig recently learned she only has a few weeks to live after being diagnosed with small-cell cancer, which led her granddaughter Ally Henglein to write Alonso a long, heartfelt message asking the Mets star to lift the spirits of her “gammy.”
“Since the mid 1960s [the Mets formed in 1962], she has lived and breathed everything Mets,” Henglein said in the message. “She’s covered in blue and orange head to toe. She wears Mets apparel ever day of her life, day and night, winter and summer. She even paints her nails blue and orange, and has worn a gold Mets necklace for the last 18 years that I have known her.
“The Mets have helped her through her loneliest of times, so much so that she has asked us to spread her ashes at Citi Field,” Henglein wrote of her 82-year-old grandmother, who grew up in Brooklyn and never misses a game.
So it was the news that the beginning of the baseball season would be postponed because of the coronavirus that devastated Selig the most, Henglein said.
Alonso initially responded with a tweet “sending love” to Selig, and asked the pair to privately message him for “something special.”
The 25-year-old, who became the face of the Mets after hitting a rookie-record 53 home runs last season, then went the extra mile with a personal video message to Selig.
“I wish baseball was going on right now, it’s tough without it going on,” Alonso said.
Selig’s reaction to the video was also recorded, and she teared up with Alonso’s every word.
Alonso continued, “I hope this coronavirus passes very, very soon and we can get back to playing. … I appreciate your lifelong support and as always, let’s go Mets.”
The return of baseball, and other professional sports leagues that also halted operations because of the virus, remains uncertain.
The Mets shut down their spring training facility, though Alonso on Tuesday tweeted asking whether any other players would want to get together to play pickup games.
After Alonso’s message, Mets manager Luis Rojas surprised Henglein with a phone call, and Selig told him of his team’s gestures, “You have no idea what this has done to me.
“You have no idea how I love you guys,” Selig said.