January 31, 2007

Mets visit Hospital

Peter Zellen at Mets.com, writes about the Mets cheering kids up at Mt. Sinai Hospital:


Ethan Vargas doesn't have it as easy as most 4-year-olds.

Suffering from serious kidney disease since he was just a few months past his second birthday, Vargas goes through dialysis twice a week and has spent the last 11 days in the hospital while he waits on the kidney transplant list.

Even when things are going on around him, Vargas stays quiet and appears quite shy when people approach him, even looking away.

But when Mets general manager Omar Minaya came into the room with a Mets bear in hand, Vargas immediately lit up -- all smiles and ready to embrace the plush toy.
Minaya, along with star shortstop Jose Reyes and right-hander John Maine, visited several young patients at The Zone in Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital on Tuesday.

"I came last year, and I promised that I was going to be back," Minaya said in a sports-themed area that doesn't care about stats or contract status -- only in getting the kids to feel better. "You can see the kids' [reactions]. The concept is so great, it not only affects the kids, but it [also] affects the parents."

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