According to an AP report, Major League Baseball and its affiliates raised more than $235,000 to fund Shannon Forde Field in Little Ferry, New Jersey, in memory of the late and beloved New York Mets media relations director.
All 30 teams participated in last week’s online auction of memorabilia and meetings with current and former players and announced the results Monday.
A meet-and-greet with Hall of Famer Joe Torre, went for the top price of more than $20,000. Two “intern for a day” experiences with the Mets sold for $15,425 and dinner with SNY announcers Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen for $13,575.
Shannon died in March at the age of 44 from breast cancer. I was introduced to her in 2009 by a mutual friend and to know her was to love her. She helped me get access that season at a time when MLB had a strict no-blog policy. We attended and covered a half dozen games that year and it helped put us on the map. She continued to help us along the way, securing literally dozens of player interviews for us over the years.
But Shannon was also a caring friend with a beautiful heart. When I was having my own battle with health issues she would often email me to see how I was doing. One time after having had surgery and then spending a couple of days in the ICU, they assigned me to a regular room where there was a small arrangement of flowers waiting there for me. I thought perhaps they were from someone in my family. It wasn’t, they were from her. That’s the kind of person she was.
