Mets star’s very personal reason for joining hurricane relief effort

HOUSTON – Wilmer Flores held out hisꦿ cell phone and called up a video.

“Here, look at this,” Flor💟es said. “Max sent me this.”

The short video displayed an individual scene of heartbreak ruin. Dirty water filled a home. At one poin🎐t, an object poked its rim through the🐬 mess.

“That’s the refrigerator,” Flores said.

The Freeport, Texas, ho🌱me, or what was left of it following the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, belongs to Flores’ friend, former major leaguer Max Ramirez, who was forced to flee in a boat with his wife and 9-month-old son.

“Actually, I talked to him yesterday,” Flores said before the Mets played the Astros in Game 1 of the day-night doubleheader that everyone involved hoped coul🌞d bring a feeling of normalcy back to the region. The games were the first in the city since Aug. 24♑, when the hurricane forced the Astros to move games to St. Petersburg.

“He said he’s moving because he lost everything at his house. He’s staying at another family’s house. He lost basically everything,” Flores said of his friend, who has bounced around with several major league organizations and played🌞 for two seasons with the 🦩Rangers.

“He has a kid and he told me when everything happened, they had to get out of the house on a boat with his 9-month son and his wife,” Flores said. “It was crazyꦏ.”

Flores — who was forced to exit the nightcap when he fouled a o🅺ff a pitch directly into his face and broke his nose — felt compelled to help and was one of a large contingent of Mets who spread out Friday to try to help in any way, whether loading or unloading vehicles, sorting food or clothing💫 or just listening. Flores went off on his own while teammates went to shelters, food banks and churches.

“I went to a church with a friend from here. We went out and I wanted to do something. You know, just to feel like you helped,” Flores said. “There’s not much I can I do, but even just🌼 a little help is helpful.”

So Flores chipped in at a church where he didn’t bother even to get the name. In fact, he 🔯didn’t know the name of the city, only that “we drove꧋ like 15 minutes to get there.”

So he gave out food a🌜nd did what he could to try to ease the suffering.

“It was just crazy,” Flores said. “A bunch of people were staying there [after being forced from their homes]. It was ju♔st awful. I have friends here that were affected by it and I wanted to do something.”

And the Mets’ efforts did not go unappreciated or unrecognized. The series originally was scheduled for single games Friday, Saturday and Sunday but was crunched into a Saturday doubleheader and Sunday day game.

“We want to thank everyone in the city of Houston that’s doing something good for 🦄somebody else,” said Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who displayed the “Houston Strong” patch the team will🍃 wear for the remainder of the season.

“To the Mets, I’d like to thank you for allowing us to have a day off yesterday for a day of service,” Hinch said after Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner threw out the ceremonial first pitch. “Not only did they give us a day off, they were out in the community doing things for a city they rarely come to, an🧔d for that, we are forever grateful.”