How The Internet Enabled A Mariners Fan And DoorDash Driver To Connect And Do Something Cool
The world can be an awful, horrible place. Lately, it feels like, in America, things are only getting more difficult. And, because my country loves its scapegoats, the internet has been routinely blamed for all the country's, perhaps the world's, ills. Insurrections, political radicalization, obesity, poor socialization, literally any sub-optimal thing to do with children: blame the internet.
But that's obviously stupid. The internet is responsible for both good and bad outcomes in society, as is pretty much everything else. But the internet also is only as good or bad as those that make use of it. And sometimes, the internet enables really awesome stuff.
Take the story of Sofie Dill, Seattle Mariners fan, and Simranjeet Singh, a DoorDash driver. This past weekend, without getting into too much detail, Jesse Winker was hit by a pitch while playing the L.A. Angels and a brawl between the teams ensued. Baseball fights are plainly dumb, but some fans enjoy them, or at least root for their players in the fight. To that end, Dill, from her home in Arkansas, decided to send Winker a pizza from a local Anaheim parlor to be delivered directly to the stadium. And, for added measure, she live-tweeted her DoorDash experience for everyone to follow along.
I just ordered a pizza for Jesse Winker from @MountainMikes Pizza in Anaheim. You deserve it big guy @Mariners pic.twitter.com/AymUQvQ3r9
- Sofie
(@sofieballgame) June 26, 2022
Baseball fan or not, you should go check out the full thread. It's a harrowing journey to see if she could in fact deliver a pizza to a professional baseball player in a visiting Major League clubhouse to express her support. The spoiler here is that the pizza did in fact get delivered, Winker reached out to her on Twitter to say thanks, and a whole bunch of people were cheering on the DoorDash driver, Singh, as he went on his dutiful journey.
As a result, Dill managed to get Singh to share his Venmo QR code and shared it out to Twitter.
KING SIMRANJEET'S VENMO!
simranjeet-Singh-13
Please show your appreciation my friends! pic.twitter.com/DoybuSy2Uy
- Sofie
And from there, the internet did its thing. Plenty of folks started sending money to Singh's Venmo. Other's asked they could send him money via another platform. Singh himself started sending out tweets thanking everyone, clearly overjoyed at everyone's generosity. Then, were that not enough, two other awesome outcomes happened, just to restore your faith in humanity.
While I can't be sure how much was donated to Singh, he certainly didn't keep all of it for himself.
"Alone we can do so little;
Together we can do so much."A contribution from all the @Mariners fans and all the other people who tipped.@sofieballgame @Mariners @StJude @DoorDash @Gurmeetkaur1414 @stephenjnesbitt @sn_mlb#BlessedAndGrateful #viraltwitter #USA pic.twitter.com/cltiJ9bnj4
- Simranjeet Singh (@JeetBhamra4) June 27, 2022
There are good people in this world. Paying it forward would have been the feel good coda to this story on its own, but then the Mariners decided to get in on the fun as well.
TONIGHT ONLY at T-Mobile Park!
Get a FREE @Mariners pizza pin with purchase of a Jesse Winker player t-shirt or jersey!
*While supplies last. Available at select locations only. Cannot be combined with any other offer. pic.twitter.com/dVx3Z0Yvgj
- Mariners Team Store (@MarinersStore) June 27, 2022
Dill got herself a Winker jersey from the Mariners. Singh had what he describes as a life-changing event. Mariners fans got to have a ton of fun on Twitter with all of this. St. Jude's got a donation.
If there's a loser in this story, I can't find one. And all of this made possible by the evil, vile internet that too many people blame for every last thing.