Alfonso Soriano News

Soriano brings holiday cheer to Kids

By: Carrie Muskat, Mlb.com

CHICAGO — A year ago, after Alfonso Soriano had agreed to an eight-year contract with the Cubs and was headed to Wrigley Field to be introduced, he was driven past one of the city’s hospitals.

Soriano didn’t know any of the patients at Children’s Memorial Hospital, but saw “children” and “hospital” on the sign, and told his agents that he wanted to do something. Last year, Soriano distributed gifts to some of the kids at the hospital, and on Friday, Soriano was back, wearing a Cubs’ Christmas stocking hat and handing out presents to patients on two floors for more than an hour.

“Those kids opened my heart,” Soriano said Friday. “It’s not easy for me to see those kids sick. I want to make those kids happy. It’s tough to see them like that.”

For a few minutes, the patients could forget about why they were in the hospital and pose for a picture with Soriano. He signed hats, T-shirts and hospital garb, and presented each child with a Nintendo DS plus games to play.

He greeted the parents whose children were too sick, or couldn’t leave isolation, and took time for a photograph with them, as well.

The patients beamed when they saw Soriano’s brilliant smile. Geovany, 11, had prepared for the event and written a story about Soriano coming to the hospital, which he read to the outfielder. Anthony, 6, was wearing a Carlos Zambrano T-shirt, but said all the Cubs were his favorites.

Mark Hacker brought 8-month-old son, Christian, recently adopted from Guatemala, who is being raised a Cubs fan. Christian’s bedroom features a mural of Wrigley Field, and his sister is named Madison Wrigley.

“Even if they don’t know Alfonso, it’s an opportunity to forget they have cancer, that they’re going to have a liver transplant tomorrow, that they’ve been hit by a car, that they have epilepsy,” said Angela Schroth-Liegel, a director with Children’s Memorial Foundation. “It’s time for them to be a kid, and hang out with a ballplayer and talk about it for the next six months.

“[The visit] lightens their load,” she said. “When you’re little, you shouldn’t have to carry a burden like that. He’s so lovely about it. He organized it last time on his own. This time, he flew in on his own. It means a lot to the staff.”

Soriano got an early Christmas present as well from the Cubs, who redid the playing surface at Wrigley Field this offseason and have added an extra three feet to the outfield warning track.

“Now, I’ll know how many feet I’ll have before I get to the wall,” Soriano said.

The hospital treats more than 103,000 children a year, and the 75 or so who met Soriano on Friday will cherish the few minutes with the Cubs outfielder who tried to lift their spirits this holiday season.

“I’m really impressed by him because he wants to do it — it comes from him,” Schroth-Liegel said.

Soriano plays Santa to his five children, and brought two of them to Chicago on this trip. It was bitter cold, but he was looking forward to Saturday’s forecast of snow.

“My girl, she wanted to see snow,” he said.

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What a nice guy.