On Friday evening, Mets organization’s senior director of media relations Shannon Forde passed away, following a long battle with breast cancer.

The 44-year-old Forde has worked for over 20 years in the Mets organization. In the tenure, she turned into a pioneer for women in baseball’s public relations field.

Many colleagues of the dead came forward sharing the type of woman Forde was. Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon was among them, who described her and talked about how important she was at Citi Field.

In a statement, Wilpon said that Forde was a very unique personality. He called himself fortunate that he was able to visit her some weeks back at the rehab facility and was able to spent some quality time with her for more than an hour. Mets general manager Sandy Alderson repeated the statement given by Wilpon.

Alderson said, “Shannon was an absolute inspiration to everyone in this organization, including me, and I told her so. She was courageous in her fight and never let her illness claim her spirit. That spirit will remain with the Mets, in our memories and in our hearts”.

David Wright, Mets baseman, said that the 44-year-old woman meant him his whole career with the Mets. Wright added that the woman assisted him so much when he was a rookie. He mentioned that Forde worked very hard in making his foundation and was the one who made him get familiar to New York.

The St. John’s graduate joined the Mets organization in 1994, and she had a lot of impact in the baseball world apart from the ones confined to Citi Field.

The moment she passed away, the social media was flooded with condolences and memories from the ones within baseball, showing the kind of impact she had on the ones who came in touch with her.