Pete Alonso pledges $1,000 to animal shelters for each home run he hits this season

New York Mets slugging first baseman Pete Alonso is making a simple promise for the 2024 season: Every home run he hits will benefit an animal shelter to the tune of $1,000. And given his home run hitting prowess, it’s a decent bet that Alonso will be helping plenty of critters.

Discussing his promise for the upcoming season with reporters at spring training, Alonso didn’t offer any big prediction, just a hope to help out.

“Hopefully there’s a lot of homers and we get to save a lot of animals,” Alonso said, according to Fox Sports’ Deesha Thosar.

If his first five seasons playing Major League Baseball are any indication, Alonso is likely to be handing over a bit more than $40,000 to this charitable cause this season.

After hitting a league-leading 53 home runs during a Rookie of the Year debut season in 2019, Alonso survived a 16 home run sophomore season — in which he also played just 57 games — to average 45 a year through five seasons. In the four full seasons Alonso has played, he’s hit more than 35 home runs in all of them.

So barring some sort of disruption, Alonso is likely to help out plenty of dogs, cats and all sorts of other animals in need of a loving home.

Taylor Swift makes $100,000 donation to GoFundMe for woman killed in Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting

Taylor Swift donated $100,000 to the family of the woman who was killed Wednesday at the parade to celebrate the Chiefs Super Bowl victory.

Swift doesn’t live in the city, nor did she attend the parade. However, she is dating Chiefs superstar Travis Kelce. And she did attend the Super Bowl last Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

The donation was for the GoFundMe for the Elizabeth Lopez-Galvan Memorial. As of Friday morning, the fund had more than $186,000. When it was created Thursday, the goal was $75,000.

The family described the fund: This fund has been set up to benefit the family of Lisa Lopez-Galvan. Lisa was celebrating the Chiefs Super Bowl Victory parade when senselessly killed. She is survived by two children and her husband of 22 years. She was an amazing mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend to so many. We ask that you continue to keep her family in your prayers as we grieve the loss of her life. This fund will help provide vital financial support to her family as they process this unthinkable tragedy. Any amount is appreciated.