we are all upset that are team isnt the greatest….yeah you got it right on. But if you actually were able to read past a fifth grade level you would realize that what he is saying is that cancer has defined this guy as a pitcher. He was good before cancer, and he’s been good after cancer. Everybody is using cancer to define his career, when is reality his world series appearance and no-no should are better suited.

Being a Red Sox fan, in all its glory, is actually really easy. Your argument here would be that it took forever for you guys to win a world series again. You were competitive, yeah, but the “curse” has kept you close but not close enough. Give me a break. You dont know heartache or disappointment. Try over a decade of finishing at the bottom in your division, seeing your best players get traded for Neifi perez garbage, a perenial youth movement, and many upon many prospects that didnt live up to hype year after year and still remain a die hard fan.

RR has a point—as much as we all love baseball here, it’s trivial compared to cancer. Fighting cancer isn’t a competition, and there are no winners.

On the other hand, Lester is an inspiration to anyone who has been stricken by cancer. Thirty years ago, you’d hear “cancer” and know it was a death sentence. That someone can not only survive it, but also pitch the clinching game of the World Series and throw a no hitter afterward is a testament to the possibilities created by modern medicine. And while it’s certainly true that not everyone has the kind of access to state-of-the-art healthcare that Lester had, maybe that can help serve as a rallying point so we can work toward the day when no one will ever have to die simply because they were too poor to afford to pay for life-saving treatments.

Just in case there are any people out there who still doubt that Lester’s story is inspirational to the members of the cancer community (and thus has not been overplayed), here’s an article from the Seattle Times touching upon how Lester himself, his father, and the Seattle Community have been impacted by Lester’s recovery.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/larrystone/2004427795_stone21.html

Just one example from the story:

“Last year, Lester was deemed cancer-free by his doctors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Though he has yearned to be regarded as just another pitcher, minus the attendant scrutiny of being a recovered cancer patient, his father believes the no-hitter might mark a distinct change in his son’s outlook on that subject.
“He might be able to accept that he means more to people than just being a major-league pitcher,” Lester’s father said. “I read a lot of stuff today online from cancer patients, how much this means to them.”
Case in point: Just this week, Jon met with a Red Sox minor-league prospect who had just been diagnosed with lymphoma. The youngster’s father told John Lester how much it meant for his son to talk to Jon and realize that the disease could be beaten — and how Jon had done it.”

Just FYI, since Lester is a local boy from the PNW, there are many folks from Seattle rooting for him and the Sox. Good luck this year guys, and thanks for hosting an enjoyable blog to visit.

Cheers,
Jeff
(first by way of Seattle, and now via Tokyo)