Padres’ Tatis Jr. makes his mark with fan fighting cancer
It is still Padres spring training and Fernando Tatis Jr. already has hit a home run with his fans.
Social media comments were wildly enthusiastic after the Padres posted a video of Tatis autographing the bald head of a San Diego cancer patient.
“I love him. Extend him to a lifetime contract,” posted Ryan.
“Build his statue,” noted Mike.
“Some moments are bigger (than) baseball,” commented Gwenn.
“Beautiful stuff ! I hope she gets well soon,” remarked Ben.
The unidentified woman in the posted video is Gina Grosso, a 35-year-old speech pathologist who lives in Hillcrest and works in the Chula Vista Elementary School District.
She completed her first breast cancer chemotherapy treatment on Feb. 3. So she brought a handmade sign with her to the Padres spring training game against the Cubs at the Peoria Sports Complex on Feb. 28 requesting that Tatis sign her head. She stood with fans lining the field as he walked on.
When the Padres shortstop walked by, he stopped to sign the baseball she handed to him. “I want you to sign my bald head,” she implored.
“Wait... Really?” he asked. Then he smiled, shook his head and obligingly wrote his name with a Sharpie above her left ear.
“I made the sign the day before we left (for Arizona),” Grosso explained on Wednesday. “I’m a silly, jokester personality. You have to find the funny, and the good, and the happy when you have cancer, or it gets to be too much.”
Tatis was the first, but he isn’t the only VIP to autograph Grosso’s bald tête. She asked her Sharp Reesstealy hematologist/oncologist, Dr. Andrew Hampshire, to sign her head after her second chemo session on Monday.
Like Tatis, he agreed. “I’ve never been asked that before, and I have caused a lot of bald heads,” he quipped.
Several Padres fan have asked the Padres to make her a team rally girl.
Grosso is taking her good fortune to the next level. “I didn’t expect this much attention from it,” she said.
Along with the Padres’ post, other social media mentions of the signing were posted by ESPN, Major League Baseball and even
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