June 15^th                                                                                              Juan Marichal Day

Thanks to everyone, especially Mark Hetterly, Steve Ruegg and Roy Cilia for throwing some amazing choices at me for numbers. Hetterly’s was flawed with the inclusion of so many Damn Yankees, and Rueggs pined for his HS BBall # 10 to be included, but that would have to bump Pele, so sorry Steve.

Yours in spirit…..

 So I enter this weekend with the #26 hanging in my garage, a week away from #31 and Reggie Miller. The best I have for #26 is Wade Boggs, the old BoSox 3^rd baseman who whored out to Tampa and later to the Damn Yankees……he’s a weak link till we get going on Bonds, Mays, Jordan (Maravich?) Will Clark and on and on…..thanks for playing, it does help the time pass.

So, I am 9 sessions into 35 total, just over 25% of the way. I can live with 25%. I am a bit red, and the face is showing some signs of the predicted acne/rash thing, but Kiki has such a handle on face cleansers, and the like, and I am in possession of some scrips, we’ll see. Again, I can’t be fooled by early results, this gets worse, but 25% of it is done and I am honestly NOT suffering. Tired, anxious, anticipatory, moody, but still eating and drinking well.

 False start on the feeding tube last week. They wanted to initially send the tube down my throat and esophagus and into the stomach where they pop it out and it sees the light of day. We nixed that because of the off chance that the tube would grab a loose cell and bring it along for the ride, either to the esophagus or the stomach. The numbers on espohagul cancer are bad, like 80% fail rate, and the stomach is nowhere to have cancer, so I took matters into my hands and said no, come in from the outside.

So, I go to John Muir on Tuesday, everyone is scrubbed, I’ve got IV’s going, and the Doctor says that they are going to send a small catheter down the throat and into the stomach to help blow it up so they can find it to enter from the outside.

My next words? “Unplug me, I am out of here.” I am meeting with my surgeon on Monday to schedule a laprascope where they come in from the outside and avoid the tract. I mean, Come On! After all this effort, to let chance take over is not on the table.

So, I’ve lost a few days, don’t know when the surgery will be, but I am having it done because my brothers out there who have gone through this all did it, and the results “saved them,” to paraphrase.

I may not need it today, but when we get into the low teens and single digit days, something tells me….

 Last weekend, Sam’s Little League Team, ironically, the Yankees, were facing elimination and had to sweep a pair from the dreaded and undefeated Phillies to win the championship, which is EXACTLY what they did over a 4 hour span. Sam played CF like Willie Mays, ranging far in each direction, hauling in catches and firing strikes on line to the plate. No one ran on him. He capped off his day with a triple and he scored on a subsequent base hit.

He also made a full extension dive from 3^rd base, a la Brooks Robinson to make a play to start the first game, better than anything I ever did in Little League.

We move on to a Tournament of Champions this weekend playing teams from all over the East Bay. I am so fortunate to have been able to watch everything, the timing has been great.

Finally, and most importantly, I turned 55 yesterday, and the outpouring of calls, Facebook hits, emails, texts, and cards was humbling beyond expression. I feel so much love from out there, so much attention. Never have I had a day where so much energy came my way. I can’t get back to all of you individually, impossible, but it was so great. I am the luckiest guy in the world to have folks like y’all in my corner. I don’t take it for granted, I just appreciate it so much.  

Keep praying, its’ working, I am going to heal, and I am going to help the next guy who runs into this beast. I’m a full 3 mos into treatment and I am getting better. Maybe worse before totally better, but I am going to make it…..keep chiming in, I feed off of it.

And, a toast to Matthew Cain, he will be #18 without a doubt, sorry Peyton Manning!