December 22, 2004
Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield visits Dana-Farber with World Series trophy
Nine-year-old Nayree Goler from Plymouth enjoys meeting Tim Wakefield and holding the World Series trophy.
When Mckenzie Freeman was in the intensive care unit at Children's Hospital Boston in October with complications from her leukemia treatment, she says it was Red Sox's thrilling World Series championship drive that helped her through. Yesterday morning, during what the 17-year-old from Lexington thought was going to be a routine trip to the Jimmy Fund Clinic for chemotherapy, her favorite baseball team picked her up again.
Freeman was one of many pediatric and adult patients, family, and staff who were surprised and delighted by a visit from Red Sox pitching hero Tim Wakefield and the World Series trophy. Wakefield spent most of his hour-plus at the Institute talking and posing for photos with young patients in the clinic, then went up to Dana 10 infusion area and met with adult patients there.
"She needed this," said Freeman's mother, Kathy Scott, as she watched her daughter looking over the trophy and grinning from one edge of her blue bandana to the other. "She was so depressed coming in here today, knowing the chemo would probably knock her out through Christmas, but she's happy now."
Although celebrities from the sports and entertainment world visit Dana-Farber on occasion, Wakefield was the first member of the Red Sox to come by since the team ended its 86-year World Series drought this fall – and his appearance with the trophy energized the clinic as perhaps no event since the 1999 appearance of Einar "Jimmy" Gustafson and Red Sox/Jimmy Fund legend Ted Williams.
From babies held up by their parents to teenagers who waited patiently in line, everybody wanted to touch the trophy and pose beside it. Wakefield, who has always been one of the most generous of all Red Sox players toward Dana-Farber and its Jimmy Fund – the team's official charity – talked to each child and family member in the clinic playroom and then visited patients in the private infusion rooms. When one youngster asked him to sign his pillowcase, Wakefield said "Sure, can you hold this?" and handed him the trophy.
"If the Red Sox can do this, it pushes me along," said David Levesque, a 15-year-old from Nashua, N.H., who happened to be wearing his lucky Sox sweatshirt when he showed up for leukemia treatment – then saw its magic work again. "I was at Children's during the playoffs with the Yankees, and we all stayed up watching. The nurses made me wear this and my lucky baseball pants for every game."
Staff also got in on the act. After all the patients had been accommodated, Wakefield smiled for pictures with the trophy and assorted employees – including the Maintenance crew and the Dana 10 infusion nurses. As he was leaving the clinic and heading for Dana 10, Jimmy Fund Activities Coordinator Lisa Scherber said to him, "Thank you for making us all so happy today." Wakfield's reply: "Thank you for making me happy."
