The Bomb Hit for Mom: A Mother’s Day Miracle
On Mother’s Day, San Diego Padres catcher Jorge Alfaro hit a magical home run that was not just for his mom—but thanks to her, too.
Every family has their Mother’s Day traditions. Flowers, cards, breakfast in bed, and…walk off home runs? Maybe the long ball isn’t how most families celebrate their matriarch, but it’s exactly what you would have found if you hung around San Diego Padres catcher Jorge Alfaro and his mother last Sunday. Together, they just might have had the most unbelievable Mother’s Day in sports history.
Alfaro is the Padres’ backup catcher, a slugging journeyman who last fall was placed on waivers by the Miami Marlins. It seemed like his MLB career might be over until the Padres took a flyer on him. He got hot in Spring Training, made the roster, and then cooled off in the opening weeks of the season. He was in a slump when the Marlins, the same team that just months earlier had given up on him, came to San Diego for a weekend series.
Before the Sunday game, Alfaro called his mother Consuelo Buelvas who was watching at her home in Sincelejo, Colombia. He wanted to wish her a happy Mother’s Day and make sure she’d gotten the flowers he’d sent for her (he’s a good son). She asked if he was excited for the afternoon’s game. Alfaro had bad news. He’d been dropped from the starting lineup.
“Just be ready,” his mother said on the phone. “You’re going to hit a home run today.”
Alfaro just laughed. “Mom,” he said. “That’s hard to do.”
Alfaro watched from the dugout as his team fell behind 2-0. He wore pink cleats and gloves. And then in the ninth inning, the Padres got one man on base. Then another. Manager Bob Melvin called Alfaro’s name. He needed some power and wanted Alfaro to pinch hit. The slugger represented the winning run.
Alfaro walked up to the plate, and on the first pitch, got a meaty breaking ball down the middle, and…well, just watch the video. Listen to the crowd roar.
Ball game. Home run. Walk off.
“After I hit the ball, I was running the bases, and it was like I was dreaming,” Alfaro said after the game. “It feels like a dream. How did she know?”
Some might say it was a Mother’s Day miracle. One might conclude it was nothing but a coincidence. Still others might claim that it was just motherly intuition—and after all, mothers do know best.
But whatever the cause, one thing is certainly clear: That, dear reader, is your daily reminder why you should always call your mother.
🥇 We’re thrilled to announce our next documentary, Helen | Believe, produced by Chris Pratt and directed by Dylan Mulick. The film follows Helen Maroulis, the first American woman to win a gold medal in wrestling. After the Olympics, a series of tragedies almost caused her to quit the sport altogether. The documentary traces her return to the ring, which one person described as, “one of the biggest comebacks in the history of sports.” Watch the trailer here.
🏇 If you weren’t watching the Kentucky Derby last weekend, you missed one of the great underdog (underhorse?) stories in the recent memory. Rich Strike, with 80-1 odds, had the ride of the lifetime. Watch this angle of the race, and then read this story about just how improbable the victory really was.
🏉 Yesterday, World Rugby announced that the 2031 Men’s and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cups will be held in the United States. In 1920 and 1924, the US actually won gold in rugby at the Olympics. Can this be the boost needed to make us dominate the sport yet again? One current Team USA member thinks so.
🏎️ F1 took over Miami last weekend and reminded us just how special it can be to meet your sports heroes.
🎿 Mikaela Shiffrin was supposed to have a historic Olympics. Instead, she left without a single gold medal. She can’t explain how it happened, but in this brilliant profile, she reveals how she moved forward to win a World Championship (spoiler alert: it involves Frozen II).
