A lot of ballplayers were using pink bats at U.S. Cellular Field yesterday as my beloved Chicago White Sox dropped another game to the Toronto Blue Jays.
They were using pink bats all around the majors yesterday as MLB raised awareness and funds for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. There were also walks and runs and other fundraising events here in Chicago and across the country on Mother's Day.
Long Suffering Spouse and I attended yesterday's ballgame, courtesy of Oldest Son, who now has the kind of weekend season tickets we used to have in those happy days before tuition. He couldn't go because he had his bachelor party Friday night and Saturday night -- and he figured (correctly) he might need some recuperation time thereafter.
So he'd given us his tickets as a Mother's Day/Anniversary present. (It was our 28th Anniversary Saturday. Thank you.)
Anyway, Oldest Son's seats are better than the seats we used to have when he was little -- and I could see where, on a steamy, hot Sunday afternoon his seats (in full shade, with a breeze off the concession area) would be simply fabulous.
Yesterday, though, with the temperature in the 50s -- well, we lasted a few innings, then decided to move around to seats in the sunshine.
We were not alone. By the late innings of the game, almost no one was left in the shade -- and almost no seats were to be had in any areas receiving full sun.
The area where we came to rest was largely populated by persons who'd participated in one of the breast cancer charity events earlier that day. I knew that because many were sporting distinctive t-shirts: "Boob Supporter," for example. I saw a lot of women wearing these. Another woman wore a t-shirt with a black, lacy brassiere imprinted on the front, festooned with a pink ribbon where a rosette might sometimes be found. Her t-shirt read, "I Support the Girls." Then there was the man with the t-shirt that read "I ♥ Boobs." In parentheses near the bottom of the shirt was printed the admonition, "If you don't check 'em, I will."
It occurred to me that, on almost any other day, this man would have had his face slapped by just about every woman who happened to read his shirt. I mentioned this to Long Suffering Spouse.
"I don't know why breast cancer gets all this attention," my wife said. "There are other cancers that cause more deaths than breast cancer. Lung cancer and colon cancer to name two." (Colon cancer doesn't just run in my family; it practically gallops. I've had colon cancer. So we are aware of these things.)
As I mulled my wife's statements over, two thoughts occurred to me. But I only talked about one. "Imagine, if you will," I told her, "a colon cancer awareness campaign: What sorts of smart-aleck t-shirts could you come up with for that?"
She made a face. "Oh," she said. "They'd be gross."
"Precisely," I said, and went back to watching the game.
1 comment:
Each year 40,000 people die of breast cancer 400 of them will be men. Out of every 8 women 1 will be diagnosed with it. Breast cancer is the second cause of cancer related death in women. Women who have been diagnosed must undergo extensive cemo or radiation (sometimes both) and many times life altering mastectomies and plastic surgery.
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