Carlos Pena Dedicates Walk-Off Game Winner To Cancer Victim Greg Montalbano of the Boston Red Sox

File this under “Things We Wish We Could Do.” When Tampa Bay’s Carlos Pena heard that his best friend from college, Red Sox prospect Greg Montalbano, had died of cancer, he decided to do something special in his friend’s honor. And he delivered, driving in the game-winning single Saturday against the Texas Rangers.

Montalbano, just 31 years old when he succumbed to testicular cancer on Friday, had pitched for the Worcester Tornadoes in the Can Am league after being released by the Red Sox in 2001. Before that, he and Pena had been teammates and best friends at Northeastern University. The Tampa Bay first baseman even called Montalbano his “right hand in college.”

When Pena got wind of his friend’s untimely death he made a promise, like Lou Gehrig (and Paul O’Neil in that one episode of Seinfeld) before him to “do something good” to honor the memory of his friend who never got a chance to play in the major leagues. And do good he did, homering twice on Saturday night against the Rangers before banging a walk-off single in the 10th, winning the game 5-4 for the Devil Rays.

Call us saps, but we’re total suckers for this kind of stuff, like when Brett Favre threw for 399 yards the day after his father died. Losing someone is always tough, and you just want to do something special, and not everyone has an international platform for exhibiting that grand gesture. Like, how great must it feel to honor your bro with a couple of home runs in a major league game as opposed to, say, a glass of cheap bourbon? Everything’s relative, eye of the beholder, blah blah blah, but seriously - winning a major league baseball game must be some serious catharsis. Way to go, Carlos, and pardon us for a moment while we pretend we have something in our eyes.

Carlos Peña drives in winning run in 10th inning as Tampa Bay Rays beat Texas Rangers 5-4 [TampaBay.com]
Greg Montalbano, 31, engineer, Red Sox prospect pitched in minors 5 years [Boston Herald]