LR fan’s pizza a hit with player

Things weren’t going so well last Sunday for Seattle Mariners outfielder Jesse Winker.

In a game against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium, Winker was hit with a pitch, got into a benches-clearing brawl and was among several players who were ejected.

In Little Rock, Mariners fan Sofie Dill had been watching this all unfold on the ROOT Sports Network. When she realized Winker had gotten the boot, she figured he might need cheering up.

“I’m imagining him back in the clubhouse, all alone and sad,” she says. “I was like, you know what? I’m going to order him a pizza. I don’t even know if that’s possible, but I’m going to try it anyway.”

She Googled the address for Angel Stadium and had a small pepperoni pizza from the Anaheim location of a regional chain called Mountain Mike’s Pizza delivered to Winker via DoorDash. All the while, she’s tweeting about it.

“It was just going to be a Twitter joke and as inexpensive as possible,” says Dill, whose Twitter handle is @sofieballgame. “It was $25 with the tip.”

After she made the order she was in touch with her DoorDash delivery person, Simranjeet Singh, who managed to get the pie to the stadium.

“He was texting me the whole way,” says the 38-year-old Dill. “He said he had trouble finding parking, and I laughed so hard at that.”

After Singh handed it off to a security person, the pizza made its way to Winker in the visitor’s clubhouse. Meanwhile, Dill tagged Winker in an Instagram story to give him a heads up.

“Sofie I got the pizza. Thank you. I appreciate it a lot,” Winker told her in an Instagram message that she shared on Twitter.

How cool is that? But the story doesn’t end there.

Dill shared Singh’s Venmo information with her followers, and hundreds of them sent him tips. Singh paid all of that kindness forward by donating $500 to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, sharing details of the gift on his Twitter, @ JeetBhamra4.

“We talked a little bit later for about 15 minutes after the tips started pouring in for him,” Dill says. “He’s a fantastic guy.”

On Thursday, Singh tweeted that Mountain Mike’s had donated $1,000 to St. Jude’s in his name.

All of this has gotten Dill a fair amount of notice. She was written about at The Athletic and Sporting News, among other outlets, and her Twitter following rose from a little less than 1,000 to more than 4,300.

Now she’s ready to get back to normal.

“It’s been nice, but I do miss the small Twitter family I followed. I can’t tweet anything now without dozens of randos chirping in. I’m very lucky, but I’m ready for it to die down.”

Looking back, she would make one change.

“If I had known the pizza would actually get to him, I would have ordered an extra large.”