New York Mets rookie first baseman Pete Alonso will donate custom 9/11 cleats to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
The season is nearly ending for the New York Mets, but that’s not stopping Pete Alonso from his all-around class-act tendencies.
Earlier this month, Alonso took it upon himself to customize and order 9/11-based cleats for the team. This caught the eye of the major leagues, but the MLB decided not to fine the Mets for wearing the custom cleats without permission. Now, Alonso will be donating a pair of the custom cleats to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan. Anthony DiComo reported the news on Thursday.
Another "this is cool" thing: Pete Alonso will donate these Sept. 11 cleats to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum next week in lower Manhattan. pic.twitter.com/y6xi4lnfy7
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) September 26, 2019
Overall, it was the right move for the league not to penalize the ballclub in any way.
“Originally I wanted to do some hats for us,” Alonso said when he originally came up with the idea for the cleats, per Alex Smith of SNY. “I wanted to do custom hats with whatever group of first responders — if someone wanted to do FDNY or Port Authority they had the choice. Unfortunately there’s a lot of red tape with Major League Baseball, and they kind of shot that idea down. I think it’s kind of sad that guys weren’t allowed to — since that day the first game back, they kind of shut it down every year since. I think that’s really unfortunate.”
Alonso currently has 51 home runs on the year with three games left to play. He’s chasing the home run title along with the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Not to mention, he’s one home run away from tying the single-season rookie record. The mark was previously set by New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge in 2017.
