During Tuesday night’s game at Wrigley Field, Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte was seen crying on the field after a heckler allegedly made cruel comments about his late mother.
Marte, who had already homered earlier in the game, suddenly looked shaken. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo noticed and immediately went over to comfort him.
“I just reacted as a dad would when I went out to change pitchers,” Lovullo later told reporters. “I could see he was sobbing. It hurt.”
Ketel Marte seems visibly upset and in tears during a pitching change
byu/amatom27 inbaseball
Marte’s mother, Elpidia Valdez, passed away in a car accident in the Dominican Republic back in 2017. Since then, he speaks openly about the pain of losing her and how it continues to shape his life and career.
Support pours in from teammates and fans
Following the incident, teammates surrounded Marte on the field, offering words of support and physically consoling him before the game resumed.
Despite the emotional moment, the Diamondbacks held their lead and came out on top with a 4–1 win over the White Sox.
While the fan’s identity remains a mystery, reactions online were quick and emotional.
“I’m all for letting Marte fight a fan this one time,” one Reddit user wrote in a post shared on r/baseball.
Another added, “The level of work that goes into being that big of a [expletive] amazed me… This moron went out of his way to find out Marte’s mother died in 2017 and decided that was going to be the way he heckled an opposing player.”
“What the [expletive]? Bring back public shaming,” a third person said.
Sports fans on X are united
If one thing’s for certain, people who are tweeting about this ordeal are absolutely on Ketel Marte’s side, including the MLB.
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