He may wear blue, white and orange, but Mets' rookie Pete Alonso wanted to wear the Red, White and Blue at the Wednesday night game against the Diamondbacks.
Alonso ordered custom cleats for his entire team and bought the shoes for everyone to honor those who lost their lives on September 11, Sports Illustrated reported.
As in years past, MLB officials had said no to custom-made caps to honor the heroes of 9/11, and the team could not wear them to mark the day that changed America for the game.
They were allowed to wear the caps during warmups, then were required to change for the game.
But they didn't change their shoes.
They didn't even ask if they could wear them. They just did.
"For me, I did just come from a place where I want to show support not just to the victims but to the families as well, because no one knows how deep those emotional scars can be. Living here, just kind of interacting with everybody, I've tried to immerse myself -- just kind of the New York living," Alonso told SNY.tv. "I just want to show recognition to all the people who are just heroes, just ordinary people that just felt the sense of urgency and the admirable call of duty. This is for all those people who lost their lives and all those people that did so much to help."
This is not the first time the Mets have gone against the wishes of the MLB head office. Days after the attack, the team donned caps to honor the victims. The league had said no, but they did it anyway 18 years ago, SNY.tv reported.
"It's an awful day, but in order to kind of grow and move on as a country and especially here as a city in New York -- it's not just a New York thing, it's a United States thing," Alonso said according to Sports Illustrated.
Alonso and the team could have been fined by the league for the unapproved items, but the league has decided not to punish do that, SNY.tv reported.
The Mets ended up winning the game with nine runs on 11 hits in the final hours of September 11.
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