Kolten Wong has had bigger game-winning hits, but a looming presence at an otherwise empty Busch Stadium made this walk-off single extra special.
His mom, Keala Wong, had one of the best seats in the house Thursday night as Wong drove a one-out fly to deep right-center with two runners on base in the ninth inning, capping the St. Louis Cardinals’ three-run rally and a 5-4 victory against the Cincinnati Reds.
St. Louis played its first home game since July 26. It was idle for 17 days after 10 players tested positive for the virus.
The Cardinals put the first four runners on in the ninth against closer Raisel Iglesias (1-2). Dexter Fowler loaded the bases with a single and Yadier Molina hit a grounder off the glove of Iglesias, cutting the deficit to 4-3.
Iglesias followed with a run-scoring balk to tie it and set up Hilo’s Wong, who tossed high-fives in the general direction of his delirious teammates while jumping up and down after his first RBI of the Cardinals’ shortened season. Yet he did not come into contact with anyone.
Social distancing at its finest.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Wong thought about grabbing a water bucket to dump it on himself, but he opted not to.
“It’s weird,” he said.
And impactful, because his biggest fan was there right where she wanted to be.
Wong placed three cardboard cutouts in the premium green seats near behind home plate at Busch Stadium: his mom, his wife, Alissa Wong, and Duke, his dog.
“My mom never got the chance to enjoy many games at Busch but now she will!” Kolten posted on Instagram last week.
Keala Wong died of cancer in 2013, shortly after she got to see her son become the Big Island’s second major leaguer and first to play in the World Series.
“My wife has been with me through thick and thin,” Kolten told KHON2’s Rob DeMello earlier this week. “We don’t have kids right now, so my dog is kind of like my kid right now. And my mom, just having the ability to have her there – she’s always with me – but to have her there is pretty cool.
“On top of that, she’s sitting in the green seats, so she’s in a good spot. That’s exactly how my mom would want it. Always wanted to have the ability to be front and center to watch me play, and now she’s able to do that, through spirit as well.”
Perhaps the biggest walk-off hit of his career came in 2014, the first season Kolten played since losing his mother. In Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, Wong hit a solo home run in the ninth inning to draw the Cardinals even in the series. In eight postseason games that year, Wong hit three homers and three doubles.
“My mom was always my biggest fan, someone that I wanted to be at all my games,” he told KITV’s Cody Krupp. “That whole (2014) postseason, it felt like something was different, somebody was helping me. I couldn’t help but think about her the whole time.”
The Kamehameha-Hawaii alum started “Kolten’s Crew” to honor his mom’s legacy. The program rolls out the red carpet at Busch Stadium for children with cancer and gives families a memorable ballpark experience. The annual event is on hold this season, KHON2 reported, because of COVID-19.
Wong choked up while discussing the impact the cancer-stricken children have had on him.
“Seeing what those kids are going through, how they carry themselves, how they hold themselves up, it makes you realize life is pretty special,” he told KHON2. “No sense in worrying about the things you can’t control. These kids, you look at them and they’re battling through cancer, battling through tough things, and they have the biggest smiles on their face.
“Ever since I started doing this, it just changed my outlook on everything. It shows you what the most important thing is. It’s not the amount of money you have, not the amount of cool things you have, it’s the impact you have on people’s lives.”
Keala Wong’s impact shines on.
Editor’s note: To view television interviews earlier this week with Kolten Wong, visit www.khon2.com and www.kitv.com