I was only 27. Our family usually ran the team carpool — my mom would drive everybody, me and my teammates, to and from games and practices. I’m definitely trying to follow all the protocols, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because I don’t want to expose myself to anything, especially before going into chemotherapy.My treatment will take six months — every two weeks for six months. “You know you have the entire organization behind you.”It’s one of my favorite times of year. Seeing somebody you love in pain is honestly tougher than what you are going through personally. But I just want to make sure that I am physically fine before I go out there and start trying to perform again at a major league level.Don’t get me wrong — I have bad days. There’s a 13-year-old kid named Mo Gaba, who’s a really big fan of Baltimore sports. Those exchanges mean so much to me now. I’m not really big on social media, but I posted a video on Instagram after my surgery because I wanted people to see that I looked like myself and I was in good spirits.And I have no doubt that, even when I’m doing chemo, I can work out and do some things. That was pretty cool.I wasn’t drafted out of high school, mostly because I had pretty much let teams know I was going to go to college.
It expedited everything.If baseball returns in 2020, it will probably be without me.I know that this is a terrible time for everybody. But this year it was a little bit tougher, more of a grind to get through every day. But after the second test, my iron levels were even lower. Aaron Judge ran away with it — as he should have. I’ve been keeping in touch with them and updating them with everything going on. He’s had bouts with a few different types of cancer, and he’s blind and has a tough time getting around. Why now?” And that’s when Sara’s been really good about kicking me in the rear. I certainly heard it, and I never in a million years thought something like this would happen to me. I had never missed time because of an injury, and I wanted to play no matter what. Orioles outfielder Trey Mancini finishes his chemotherapy treatments for stage 3 colon cancer Sept. 21, an indication of just how quickly the baseball season that starts Friday will pass. COVID-19 has spread so quickly. But he really put his reputation on the line for me.Kirk and I still keep in touch.
Like a panther, he strikes, slashing the ball to all fields with a sharp, short stroke. The tape of me in college was kind of goofy, honestly. FSU was really where I wanted to go, but then for whatever reason they didn’t really recruit me. But the truth was I was hurt way worse than I admitted. I’ve just had to quickly accept this as my new reality. But still, every once in a while I catch myself thinking ahead — to when chemo is over, to when they remove my port, to when I can start going full-speed again. Our weekends completely revolved around baseball tournaments. I met Karim Garcia.
He wasn’t even my area scout — he was Baltimore’s northeast scout — but in 2013 he went out of his area and put his neck out and convinced the Orioles to draft me in the eighth round. I am so appreciative for them, and also for the Orioles’ front office and ownership. But she doesn’t have to do that too often, because I truly know how blessed I really am.We hear that all the time, but it really is true. So I knew something was up, but I chalked it up to just getting older.I didn’t think for even one second that anything was seriously wrong.When I’d first arrived, I went through the annual team ritual of physicals and blood work with our doctors.
I knew immediately that this was real.Sara was great. And she said, “You didn’t come this far to only come this far.”That really resonated with me. That really resonated with me. I’d just come down with the flu the same day as the blood test, so I thought that maybe that had had something to do with the results.
I’m more worried about them, and how they’re doing. I’m from Winter Haven, Florida, and they got in their car right then and drove two hours down to Sarasota. There was a little part at the bottom of the wall that wasn’t padded — and it just crushed my knee. And then I told him we’d hang out again soon.A few days before I flew up to Baltimore from Florida for surgery, I went in and told my teammates what was going on. You name a city in Florida, I’ve probably played there. So, I really wish there was a season going on and everything was normal. He told me that he was worried about me and wanted to make sure I was O.K.The 13-year-old kid with cancer calling me to make sure I’m O.K.? I was still woozy from the anesthesia, but before he even said the word There’s no way that he’s about to say what I think he’s about to say. I had a good second half after that. He was the last person who came up to me in the locker room, and that was when I kind of lost it.Honestly, I love the Orioles. They knew something was up because I hadn’t played any games that week.
And I also met Jeremy Guthrie. Call him Boom Boom, Henry or the Pink Panther, this Mancini has been one of the Orioles’ brightest stars this year After such a memorable start to his MLB career in late September last year, In a 2017 year when there hasn’t been much to celebrate, but a mess of things to cry over, Mancini has been a breath of fresh air. I’ve been to spring training with the Orioles in Sarasota every year since 2014, but I’d never felt like that before. I wanted to stay strong and put on the front that I wasn’t afraid, and that I wasn’t too down or upset.Everything was going fine until one of our clubhouse managers, a guy we call Bunny, took me by the hands and started praying. But just as important as the money was the fact that I was still an Oriole, that I was going to be staying with the only team I’ve ever played for. I desperately wanted to go to a school in Florida at first. It blew me away.I told Mo I was going to be fine.
I couldn’t imagine having gone anywhere else.In the summer of 2011, after my freshman season in South Bend, I played for the Holyoke Blue Sox of the New England Collegiate Baseball League — and that’s pretty much the only reason I got drafted by the Orioles. She called my parents right away. I’d take BP, and I’d just get tired after a few swings. I had March 26 circled on my calendar.