Mets' Pete Alonso honors 9/11 victims with custom cleats to 'get around' MLB cap ban

Tom Gatto

Mets' Pete Alonso honors 9/11 victims with custom cleats to 'get around' MLB cap ban image

The Mets on Wednesday held their annual remembrance of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. A player who was 6 the day of the massacre made two of the night's biggest statements.

As is custom, the team wore caps to honor New York-area police, fire and other public safety agencies before the game at Citi Field. There was also a pregame ceremony in which players, manager Mickey Callaway and coaches stood shoulder to shoulder with NYPD officers.

The Mets first wore the special caps in 2001, a week after Al Qaeda operatives hijacked airplanes that destroyed the World Trade Center's twin towers, severely damaged the Pentagon and were aimed at the White House. More than 3,000 people were killed. MLB has long banned the team from wearing the caps during games.

SN ARCHIVES: Reflecting on 9/11 and the 'darkest of weeks'

The Mets still made a visible display of support during Wednesday's game, thanks to the efforts of 24-year-old rookie first baseman Pete Alonso. As SNY's Steve Gelbs reported, Alonso ordered custom-made cleats for he and his teammates to wear.

Alonso — who was born in Tampa — told reporters after the game that shoes were a way to "get around" MLB's ban. They were also his way of acknowledging the emotional struggle New Yorkers still face 18 years on.

"It comes from a place where I just want to show support for not just the victims but the families as well, because no one really knows how deep those emotional scars can be," he said (

.@Pete_Alonso20 talks about his inspiration for getting his teammates custom first responder cleats. #MetsWin pic.twitter.com/no68qqRgG9

— New York Mets (@Mets) September 12, 2019 " target="_blank">video per the team).

"Living here, just kind of interacting with everybody, I've tried to immerse myself in . . . the New York living, and I see kind of traces of it every single day," Alonso added, "little bits and pieces of it, and I just want to show recognition to all the people who are just heroes, just ordinary people that just felt a sense of urgency and an admirable call of duty. This is for all those people who lost their lives and all those people that did so much to help."

To make the night even more poignant, the Mets went out and defeated the Diamondbacks 9-0, on 11 hits..

Nine and 11. Eighteen years after 9/11.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.