Cancer-survivor grandma already got lift from team

Kathleen Selig covers herself head to toe in Mets gear. She paints her nails blue and orange and wears a 14k gold Mets necklace. She has Mets scrapbooks, Mets vases, Mets towels, Mets teddy bears and Mets pillows and blankets.

“She eats, sleeps and breathes the Mets,” the 81-year-old superfan’s granddaughter, Ally Henglein, said. “It means a lot more to her than anyone could ever imagine. She’s obsessed I would say. If she sees someone with a Mets hat or license plate, she’ll take the wheel and try to honk at them. She always goes out of her way to talk to people with Mets gear.”

There was a time when Selig wasn’t sure she would see her favorite team play again. She was diagnosed with Stage 4 small-cell lung cancer in February. In early March, the season was postponed due to the pandemic. Asthe Rockaway Beach native was fighting the disease, though, she received a pick-me-up from the Mets. After Henglein posted a heartfelt message on Twitter about her grandmother’s love for the Mets and her condition, Pete Alonso recorded a video message for her that went viral.

“I was like beside myself,” Selig said. “What he did last year — he won everything. He takes the time out to call me. I was crying my eyes out. I couldn’t control myself.”

The next day, new manager Luis Rojas called her. And in late June, after a series of immunotherapy treatments, the tumor in her lungs was gone. The disease is still in her liver and some parts of her bones, but she has improved significantly.

“Go figure, it’s like a miracle,” she said. “I don’t believe it myself, but it’s true.”

Selig — no relation to former MLB commissioner Bud Selig — has been with the Mets from the start. She switched from the Dodgers when the team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and was in attendance for the 1986 World Series clincher, describing it as “the best night.”

She has mostly stayed inside over the last few months, taking every precaution against contracting the virus. When baseball announced it was attempting to return, she began to get excited. She can hardly wait to see her Mets now.

“I have to see them — I have to be with them,” she said. “I can’t wait. I just want to see them. I’m not the only one I’m sure. I just think they’re the best.

“I hope they’re careful. I just want them to take care of themselves, because I wouldn’t want them to get sick.”