Mancini savors his return
BOSTON — As Orioles star Trey Mancini came to home plate for his first at-bat Friday — making official his return to regular season baseball after missing all of 2020 for treatment of stage 3 colon cancer —Red Sox catcher Christian Vázquez met him before he could step into the batter’s box for a hug.
Later in the game, he got hugs from Boston’s Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers at first base.
It wasn’t the stadium-wide ovation that made his spring debut so memorable, and he had to wait until the eighth inning to collect his first hit.
But for the 29-year-old Mancini, the Orioles’ 3-0 win Friday at Fenway Park represented the most memorable game of his major league career.
“When you hear you’re diagnosed with cancer, like I’ve told you guys, baseball was the last thing on my mind,” Mancini said. “Quite frankly, before I knew anything about the cancer, whenever the doctor told me, I thought I was never going to play baseball again. I made sure to soak it all in, no matter what happened today, and just appreciate doing this for a living. I’m not going to ever take that for granted.
“The fact that I’m a year removed from the diagnosis, going through six months of chemotherapy, a lot of things ran through my mind today — days where I couldn’t get out of bed, days where I was hunched over the toilet sick. It was all worth it to be back here, to be out there with the guys. It’s something that I can’t describe.”
The 29-year-old Mancini wasn’t feeling well all spring training in 2020, and tests eventually found a malignant tumor in his colon. He had surgery to remove it in mid-March, and tests revealed it had spread to some of his lymph nodes, meaning Mancini had to miss the season and have a six-month chemotherapy regimen.
He finished his treatment in September, began working out again in October, and was an early report to spring training to make up for lost time in February.
On Friday, he showed a glimpse of what could make him even better. His first two at-bats were ground ball double plays, which in the past would have caused his frustration to boil over. Manager Brandon Hyde joked with Mancini after he pulled a single down the left-field line in the eighth inning about finally getting one through the infield.