SAN FRANCISCO – Players with the San Francisco Giants put on their jerseys, but not for a regularly scheduled game Friday. Instead, they went just a few blocks away from the ballpark, to play ball with a very special group of courageous kids.
“I kind of got excited,” Stephen Ramirez of Antioch said, as he held a ball and hat autographed by the Giants players.
The event brought big league players with big hearts to meet with UCSF pediatric patients at Family House, a home base for families who have children getting treatment at UCSF, who live more than 50 miles away from San Francisco.
“Family House is a pediatric guest house. We’ve been around since 1981, and we’re serving families whose children have cancer and other life-threatening illnesses,” Katherine Thompson, CEO of Family House, Inc., said.
Thompson says the facility has 80 rooms, shared kitchens, a gym, and activity rooms for patients, their siblings, and parents. All costs are covered through private donations.
In the Family House courtyard, staff created a mini-baseball field. Giants pitcher Tristan Beck tossed balls to the kids who came up to home plate.
Mark Alvarez, a 15-year-old from Fresno, swung a small plastic bat and got several hits. It was a major league accomplishment for Mark, who has double vision from recent brain surgery.
“It’s exciting to meet them in person,” Mark Alvarez said.
Mark’s mother Bonnie Alvarez had a big smile, seeing her son interacting with the Giants players and staff at Family House.
“They’re very loving, supporting…have a lot of events like this to lift your spirits up,” Bobbie Alvarez said.
Family House staff say it is important to help families have fun and make positive memories, even as they face very difficult medical challenges.
“We flew here for our baby to get a bone marrow transplant. He’s in the hospital still,” Athenia Smith said. Smith is from Tacoma and says her older son, Isaiah, was excited to see his baby brother, Bentley, after being apart for months.
Isaiah says his favorite part of the day was playing baseball with the Giants and having them sign the balls for the kids.
Many of the children were happy to see their heroes in person.
“Just to be able to see the smiles on their faces when they’re out here playing wiffle ball and stuff, you know, it’s good for them and it’s good for us too,” SF Giants’ Second Baseman Tyler Fitzgerald said.
“I can’t even imagine what they’re going through, but all I can say is just stay positive, always keep going forward, always keep pushing. There’s always hope,” SF Giants’ Left Fielder Heliot Ramos said.
Hope is essential for these young people, who also are heroes themselves, fighting the battle of their lives every day.
“He’s been our strength because he wakes up every day and he just tries to get through this, every day,” Stephen Ramirez’s mother, Michelle Garay of Antioch said. “It’s been hard, not only financially, but emotionally.”
“These kids…have medical traumas that they’re going through. Each family here is going through something. My son Sam here just had a kidney transplant, and Family House is…[a place] where you can have some joy,” Skip Maynard, a Bay Area native who now lives in Idaho, said.
“It’s hard at first, but you get used to it, and definitely, they do a great job of making it feel like home here,” Samuel Maynard, 17, of Idaho said.
At the end of the event, the families took a group photo with the Giants players: Patrick Bailey (#14), Tristan Beck (#43), Drew Gilbert (#61), Tyler Fitzgerald (#49), Joey Lucchesi (#57), Heliot Ramos (#17), Casey Schmitt (#10), Carson Seymour (#77), Dominic Smith (#7).
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