Cubs Boston Connection Responsible for World Series
There is an imperfect/perfectness to baseball. The flow of the game to the friendships shared. In baseball it’s never more evident that pieces fall together perfectly, at the perfect time. A ball rolling along the foul line, an uncanny bounce, the slider that hangs in the ninth but is hit just foul. The bad luck one day always seems to work in your favor the next. There is a perfect, imperfect, synergy to the game which is shared with no other sport, which makes it, fair.
Looking back to 2008, it might have been difficult for Anthony Rizzo to see the fairness in the game. Anthony had just been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and was invited to Boston to meet with Theo Epstein, the Red Sox General manager. As Theo fought back tears, he welcomed the future superstar, and introduced him to Boston’s manager, Terry Francona.
Terry had just burried his mother-in-law, who had passed because of cancer. He is also introduced to Jon Lester, who had, fought, and beat cancer. Lester beat anaplastic large cell lymphoma, and was standing in front of a young, teenage Anthony Rizzo as proof that he could win his battle.
Jon showed Anthony around the clubhouse, and shared his story and battle. While Anthony’s father, John Rizzo, asked most of the questions, the younger Rizzo was leaning on Jon’s every word.
As Jon told his story, Rizzo became more and more confident that he will win his battle.
“It was everything I needed to hear,” Rizzo recalled. “I was thinking the same thing: ‘I have to do whatever it takes to get this out of me.’ He beat his cancer; I knew I could too.”
While inspiring, the moment may have been too much for the young Rizzo. Through the questioning and conversation, Anthony eventually passed out. This is the moment it hit Anthony, he has cancer, and it was overwhelming. It was also a teaching moment for his father, as Lester told him to not make a big deals of these moments, keep moving forward. Making a big deal about his cancer, or what may happen, will show Anthony that cancer IS overwhelming.
It is like a young child, when they fall and the parent makes a big deal and runs to make sure they are ok, it becomes a big deal. As much as the parent wants to rush to their baby’s aid, they must hold back that urge allowing it to be no big deal.
From then on Anthony did what he needed to beat cancer. Not allowing treatments to rule his life, and even when he was his sickest – he moved on. He did so with his family at his side, and a friend in Jon Lester who served as proof he was on the right track.
Later that summer Rizzo’s cancer would go into remission.
In 2010 Rizzo is traded to the San Diego Padres. Before he leaves, Theo wanted to speak with Anthony. Epstein tells the young slugger that their paths will meet again, someday, somehow. True to his word, one of the first acts of business when Theo and Jed Hoyer came to Chicago was to bring Rizzo to the Cubs.
Three seasons later Lester joined Rizzo and the Chicago Cubs. Saying the bond Rizzo and he shared as one of the biggest factors. It became bigger than baseball, it was a chance to play alongside someone that shared something so incredibly intimate.
While everyone knows that Rizzo and Jon have this story, many don’t know just how close the two are. A bond forged seven years earlier, Lester and Rizzo are closer to brother than anything else. With Jon being a more serious older brother and Anthony being a lighthearted partying younger brother.
“They jab at each other, but it’s always lighthearted,” Kris Bryant says. “Jon helped Anthony through a very tough time, so they have a relationship none of us can have. They’re leaders for this team, and their past experiences shaped that.”
With Jon, Anthony, Theo and Jed reunited, it was only the perfect nature of baseball to fulfill that last tie to Boston. In the Cubs historic World Series run, Terry Francona sat in the opposing clubhouse. Watching on as the Cubs eventually beat his Cleveland Indians, the synergy of the sport certainly brought them all together again.
The love they share between Jon and Anthony is unspeakable, and it comes from the story they share. From the Boston clubhouse, etched in Cubs lore forever. While the Cubs and Boston playing in Fenway is a special event, the meaning for Theo, Jed, Anthony and Lester is beyond the game – it’s love.
*Information from ESPN’s article was used in this piece.
