Spring Break
Lester, Hester overcome odds
Mike Mazzeo
Issue date: 5/23/08 Section: Sports
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I can't watch replays of the 2004 ALCS without getting a sick feeling in my stomach.
However, on the night of May 19, I was pulling for Boston.
Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester was just three outs away from throwing the 18th no-hitter in franchise history against the Kansas City Royals and lucky for me, the final inning was being shown on ESPN.
Lester seemed a bit nervous as he toed the rubber at Fenway Park and proceeded to walk the leadoff batter.
Fortunately, the no-hitter was still intact.
But for Lester, what the future would hold could not match a previous event that nearly cost him his life.
The 24-year-old left-hander was scratched from a start against the Oakland A's on August 27, 2006, due to a sore back.
Just four days later, it was determined that Lester was being treated for enlarged lymph nodes and, potentially, cancer.
Doctors would diagnose him with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
As he underwent extensive chemotherapy, Lester's baseball future, and his life, were up in the air.
And as Lester was battling for his life, a familiar face on the Drexel women's basketball team was in a similar fight.
Nicole Hester was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma around the same time and sat out the entire 2006-07 season while undergoing treatment for her life-threatening disease- just like Lester
Both athletes, young, full of life and ready for their careers to take off were faced with the ultimate adversity.
It was not whether they would notch another strikeout or hit another 3-pointer; it was whether they would live, or whether they would die.
Ultimately, both would win their respective battles and would return to their respective sports with a vengeance-but likely with a newfound perspective on life.
I watched Lester in his comeback start at Jacobs Field against the Cleveland Indians July 23, 2007.
It was a very emotional roller coaster not only for Lester, at least not on outward appearance, but rather for his parents, especially his mother.
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