New York Mets: Showing some love to a stricken die-hard
By Jeff Kallman
Lifelong fan Kathleen Selig has cancer. Her granddaughter Ally Henglein asks the New York Mets for love. Two have shown it. Hopefully, more to come.
An eighteen-year-old young lady named Ally Henglein tweeted Tuesday afternoon that she wanted something special for her cancer-stricken, 82-year-old grandmother. Specifically, that the New York Mets, for whom grandmother and granddaughter root, reach out to her Gammy in any way, shape, or form.
Gammy is Kathleen Selig, an 82-year-old Met fan whom her granddaughter says is diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer and given mere weeks to live. Ally’s appeal on behalf of “my best friend” has received at least two responses from Mets past and present, and no small round of Mets and other fans touched by her appeal.
Ally asked for, “A visit, a FaceTime call, a shoutout Tweet, a letter, anything to brighten her spirits.” Two Mets players, one present and one past have provided shoutout tweets at least, and one has offered something a little extra.
Reigning National League Rookie of the Year Pete Alonso re-tweeted the appeal and added, “Sending my love to your grandma. It’s stories like these that make me extra proud to be a Met. Check your DM, I’d love to send her something special.”
Former Met Gregg Jefferies, whose minor league phenom status turned into a major league headache in the later 1980s and early 1990s, tweeted, “Kathleen you hang in there, the world needs great Mets fans like you. God bless you,” punctuated by an image of hands together in prayer. Prayers are the least the lady may receive.
A Mets employee named Sam Katzap tweeted, “I’ll send this to my supervisor at the Mets and we can see what we can do.” Apparently, that made its way to Alonso and Jefferies thus far. If there’s more to come, and you hope in all sincerity that it does, Mrs. Selig will feel herself even more fortunate to have such a loving granddaughter.