Brewer, Cub team up against cancer
Two-state effort more important than rivalry
The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs are locked in a race for a division title, and players on the two teams are working together in a race to help beat cancer.
Brewers’ pitcher Chase Anderson and Cubs’ first baseman Anthony Rizzo are part of a two-state campaign aimed at increasing cancer awareness and to help raise money for a pair of medical foundations in their states where their teams are located.
“Cancer affects so many people,” Anderson said in a phone interview Thursday following, a day after pitching a winning game against the St. Louis Cardinals. “There are four people in my immediate family (who have have fought cancer). It’s something that is near and dear to my heart, to raise money for this campaign and help find a cure for most cancers out there.”
His grandmother battled melanoma and members of his wife’s family have been afflicted with the disease, including a young cousin who succumbed to sarcoma.
Cancer Knows No Borders is sponsored by Roundy’s, Aurora Health Care, and USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. Through fundraising and personal stories, the campaign is designed to bring hope to patients and families and advance cancer treatment and research, with the ultimate goal of helping eliminate the disease.
Donations and T-shirt purchases can be made at cancerknowsnoborders.com. An in-store donation drive at Roundy’s operated markets in Wisconsin and Illinois wrapped up in early August.
Anderson said a campaign like this can make a difference, pointing to Rizzo’s successful battle with Hodgkin lymphoma almost a decade ago.
“Hopefully people see no matter what you do or who you are, cancer can affect you,” The 29-yearold Texas native said. “I know it’s going to take time, but we’re trying to help this cause. This is a big deal.”
Wisconsin donations support the Aurora Health Care Foundation while money from Illinois donors is directed to the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation.
Rizzo attended a ribbon cutting Tuesday at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago five months after the foundation donated $3.5 million to help pay for programs supporting patients and families undergoing cancer treatment at the hospital.
The American Cancer Society estimates almost 1.7 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2017. Of those, 32,990 are in Wisconsin and 64,720 in Illinois.
The Brewers and Cubs face off in a three-game weekend series Sept. 8 through Sept. 10 in Chicago. The teams are battling for a first-place spot in the National League Central Division.
For Anderson, who returned to the Brewers lineup in mid-August after recovering from an oblique muscle strain he suffered in June, seeing other people battle illness and other life issues has put his baseball career in perspective.
“It’s really opened my eyes to see how many people are affected,” he said. “Cancer can be really quick or it can eat at somebody, so it opens your perspective of enjoying the time with your family and enjoying the relationships you’ve built over the years with people … Really valuing those things more than anything.”