Photo: Baltimore Orioles/Twitter
Baltimore Orioles' first baseman Trey Mancini received a standing ovation when he came up for his first at-bat since being diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.
As the Orioles took on the Pittsburgh Pirates in spring training on Sunday, cheers and applause for Mancini were heard around the stadium as the 28-year-old stepped up to plate.
“It was amazing,” Mancini later told reporters,ESPNreported. “I almost teared up a little bit, I’m not going to lie, when I was up there and everybody gave me a standing ovation and I saw all the guys on the field clapping on the Pirates, clapping in the dugout, our team and all our fans. It meant the world to me. It was a really, really cool moment and one of the favorite moments of my baseball career.”
“I think it was a huge day for me, personally, getting back in a game. Just another kind of milestone that I can check off here,” he added.
According to theBaltimore Sun, Mancini discovered he had cancer when a physical last year revealed he had abnormal iron levels. Tests would later show he had a malignant tumor in his colon.
“All day, [I’ve] just kind of been running through the last year and everything that me and [my girlfriend] and my family have been through,” he told the newspaper. “It’s almost been a year to the day, a couple days off since I was last in a game. It definitely was a moment where it felt like it maybe came full circle a little bit.
“I thought more about everything that happened today than I have in a long time,” he added. “I’ve mostly tried to in a lot of ways just move on and not think too much about last year, but I ran through all the tough days that we had and I really tried to appreciate and cherish today. I definitely did that.”
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On Monday, Mancini thanked the Orioles and Pirates for the show of support in a message posted to his Twitter account.
“Thank you@Oriolesand@Piratesfor making yesterday so special,” hewrote. “And thank you to everyone who has reached out to me over the past day. It feels great to be back!”
source: people.com
