ST. PETERSBURG -- As Rocco Baldelli, Tampa Bay's resident right fielder, designated hitter and clubhouse sage rests, the Internet message board buzzes.
Dear Rocco,
My name is Kaelei and I have mitochondrial disease too. I am ten years old. Thank you for sharing your story with us. You are brave. Play ball good and most of all have fun and be happy. I hope you win!
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| 'A lot of people are pulling for me, and I do appreciate it,' Baldelli says. (Getty Images) |
While Baldelli conserves his energy and the first pitch of the World Series approaches, the well wishes continue to pour in.
Rocco,
As one that deals daily with this disease while working and raising a family, I salute you and your efforts to get back on the field. You are an inspiration to us that know what it truly means when "your muscles just don't work." Keep on working hard and doing what you love. Go D-Rays!
Dan S.
Union, Ky.
From Tennessee to San Diego, from Rhode Island to Florida, they are mobilizing on the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation website. Patients in pain who now have a public face to help explain their private hell. People who have spent years visiting doctors' offices like nomads, searching for a healer to solve their misery.
The World Series always has been about faith, hope and heroes.
Now, it's also about digital-age inspiration and, maybe, answered prayers.
Once, Baldelli -- a native of Woonsocket, R.I. -- was hailed as a young Joe DiMaggio.
Now, he's an old 27 and fighting with everything he's got -- honestly, some days it's less than others -- to avoid simply becoming just another statistic whose career was swallowed whole by an unexpected opponent.
Baldelli was diagnosed with mitochondrial myopathy this summer following 14 exhaustive months of testing.
The general description is that of "a condition that slows muscle recovery and causes fatigue."
Specifics? It's a debilitating disease that causes muscle weakness and can also lead to, among other things, blindness, deafness, seizures, diabetes and heart failure. According to the UMDF website, researchers also have linked mitochondrial dysfunction to a range of other well-known diseases, such as autism, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and even cancer.
Once considered the future centerpiece of an up-and-coming organization, Baldelli's career long ago was derailed by a rash of inexplicable injuries. Torn knee ligament. Torn elbow ligament. Chronic hamstring issues.
Between 2005 and his return late this season, he played in only 127 of a possible 602 games (21 percent). When he began feeling fatigue and a burning sensation in his leg muscles during the summer of 2007, it became obvious that he wasn't simply injury-plagued.
"We went all across the country, saw all of the specialists, a handful of doctors," Baldelli says. "I've had a ton of tests. Invasive tests. A lot of stuff."
He remains intentionally vague about most of it, and who would blame him? The testing process that leads to his diagnosis typically involves muscle biopsies and genetic testing, among many other things.
Yeah, you'd probably rather switch the subject back to baseball at that point, too.
"All of my muscle problems, all of the injuries in my career, in one way or another they're related to this problem and, at the time, I didn't know it," he says.
The diagnosis was a breakthrough in that, at least, he finally had an idea of what he was fighting. According to the UMDF website, mitochondria "are present in every single cell in our bodies -- except for red blood cells -- and are responsible for producing more than 90 percent of the energy needed by the body to sustain life and support growth. Mitochondrial diseases result from the failure of these tiny 'powerhouses.'"
"It's been kind of like a bad dream," Dan Baldelli, 49, Rocco's father, said during a telephone conversation Tuesday afternoon. "You know those dreams you don't wake up from? Those dreams that last forever, like when you're trying to run and you can't, like your feet are in cement?
"Not having answers for your own children gives you a feeling of failure. You can't even help your own kids. It's just a rotten feeling.
"But then you realize that a lot of other people with young children are burying them, and feeling things you don't ever want to feel. I didn't know there were so many people out there with this."
Just want to say you go, Rocco. I am a member of the UMDF for various reasons but the most important one was my son Tylor who passed away 6 years ago at 6 1/2 years old from his mito disease and I want to find a cure!!
Rocco, you're an inspiration and I want the Tampa Bay Rays to win win!!
Sincerely,
Alisen Gross
(mom to her mito angel Tylor Ryan)
Amazing, isn't it, when one man's weakness can become such a source of strength for others?
Baldelli's ordeal might never be finished. But his newest chapter started on Aug. 10 when, following two minor league rehabilitation assignments, Tampa Bay activated him. He played that night, his first major league appearance in more than a year.
He homered 12 days later, cracked a game-winning RBI double against Baltimore on Aug. 30 and slowly but surely has worked his way back. He still is not comfortable playing back-to-back games in the outfield. He serves as the designated hitter quite often and, as a right-hander whose bat mostly still remains lightning-quick, is especially valuable against lefties.
Manager Joe Maddon checks with him daily before deciding whether to scribble Baldelli's name on the lineup card, and those conversations will be especially meaningful before Games 1 and 2 of the World Series.
"He's a good match for both games," the manager says, referring to Philadelphia starting pitchers Cole Hamels, a lefty (Game 1) and Brett Myers, a right-hander (Game 2). "I've got to figure out how to best utilize him."
That Baldelli is even in a position to be utilized -- and his RBI single in the fifth inning the other night against Boston in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series was the hit that put the Rays in the lead for good -- thrills his teammates to no end.
"It's absolutely special," says third-base coach Tom Foley, who has been with the Rays since their inception in 1998. "The guy has worked real hard. It's a credit to him, the trainers and the doctors. It's just great to see. It warms our hearts. I can't even describe what we're feeling."
For a team that never before had won more than 70 games to reach the World Series in its breakthrough season, you knew some very special things were going to have to happen.
But Baldelli actually coming back to pitch in?
"I think it's probably the thing that's most special to me about this whole experience," Rays general manager Andrew Friedman says. "And anybody who knows what he's gone through feels probably the same way.
"And the same with Ron Porterfield, our head trainer. He's flown around the country with Rocco to all of the specialists.
"There are a lot of great human interest stories on our roster. But none of them are greater than Rocco."
That isn't exactly what Baldelli is thinking, however, as he prepares for his first World Series. Are you kidding?
No, right now, he can't help but think of those 10 consecutive losing seasons, and all of the struggles to turn this franchise around.
He can't help but think how amazing it is that he's sitting here, right now, in the clubhouse of a World Series team.
And he can't help but think that, winning or losing, starring or struggling, it all goes back to something that started in his own backyard at home in Rhode Island for the purest of reasons.
"I wanted to come back because I love playing," he says.
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| Manager Joe Maddon has witnessed Baldelli's struggles over the years. (US Presswire) |
"I look at him like a 300-pound guy who's only 200 pounds," Dan Baldelli says. "He used to run so fast. And he still runs well. I'm not knocking him. I love him. He still makes those legs move. It's just not like it used to be.
"It's been a very difficult time for my family. It causes tension. It causes a lot of grief. It's very sad."
Since Rocco's diagnosis, Dan periodically fields calls and letters from strangers -- usually friends of friends -- who are going through similar health issues. He dispenses advice. He offers sympathy. He listens.
"It's not like taking an aspirin is going to cure it," he says. "It's still trial and error, like so much in medicine."
According to the UMDF website, mitochondrial disease affects about one in 4,000 children, "although the actual number of children born with the disease is thought to be much higher due to its complexity and the delay and difficulty in diagnosis."
The trial-and-error part shows up throughout the site's message board, with Baldelli and this World Series currently providing one much-needed glimmer of hope.
"I've seen it," Baldelli says of the site's tribute to him. "I was kind of shocked when I saw it. Somebody told me about it, and I didn't expect all of those messages. It didn't dawn on me what might be on there.
"It's very nice. A lot of people are pulling for me, and I do appreciate it.
"It shows a lot of people dealing with this that, hey, you're not alone."
Rocco
Thank you for going public. My son is five years old and has Complex 1 Mito. I wish you the best. I watch (my) son live with this disease and it breaks my heart. He loves playing sports and just finished his first year of t-ball. God Bless you and best wishes!!
Gina and Family
Wichita, Kansas
So in addition to sleeping "twice as much" as he used to, making sure to stay hydrated (water, Gatorade and juice) and always being conscious not to over exert himself, Baldelli also daily takes a "cocktail" of medications designed to keep his muscles from losing too much energy.
He hopes he's past the worst of it, at least in a fear-of-the-unknown sense.
"When you go from a state of health to a weaker state of health where your muscles weaken and burn, and you cramp up for no reason ... that's the scary part," he says."
Now?
"I don't anticipate that my state of health will be changing," he says. "There's no reason to think that it will. I haven't been told by the doctors, and that's OK with me.
"If I maintain where I'm at now, I'll hopefully play this game for awhile. The more time I've dealt with it, the easier it becomes to manage. Because I understand."
Rocco,
My son is an 18-year-old sports geek who just happens to have mild mitochondrial myopathy. He would get frustrated explaining his disease to people so he would just call his disease cerebral palsy because people knew what that was. Now, you have given this mystery disease a face and name recognition. He's proud to say he has mitochondrial myopathy just like Rocco of the Rays!
Rock on Rocco! For John!
