For these two, simply starting is a victory
DENVER -- To talk about one is to talk about the other: Jon Lester and Aaron Cook, both scheduled to start Game 4 of the World Series, both men who know it will never be the highlight of their lives.
Lester will pitch for the Boston Red Sox less then a year after chemotherapy cured him of cancer that cut short his 2006 season and left his return to the mound in doubt.
Cook left the mound at Colorado's Coors Field in 2004 due to dizziness and a month later was in the operating room to remove a rib that was pressing against a vein and causing blood clots.
"Game 4 of the World Series. That's pretty cool, considering last year what I went through," Lester said after the Red Sox arrived at Coors Field with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. "The off-season that we had, it was tough. Now we're kind of getting rewarded for it."
Lester was a high-upside prospect who won his first five games in the big leagues and was 7-2 as a rookie last season when he went to the doctor for back pain and learned that he had anaplastic large cell lymphoma. He spent the fall in chemotherapy, and in December doctors pronounced him cancer-free.
The Red Sox brought him along slowly this year, keeping him in the minors for three months before recalling him to pitch in July. He went 4-0 with a 4.57 ERA in the regular season and made two appearances -- one good, one bad -- in the AL championship series against Cleveland.
"I think before Jon picked up a ball this year it was already a successful year," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "You want everybody to be healthy. I'm not just talking about rotator cuffs; I'm talking about health. Anybody who has children, you don't even want your kids to get the sniffles. I think it's really neat that we're talking about baseball when it comes to Jon, because there was a point where it almost seemed disrespectful."
A strong performance by Lester would put the Red Sox that much closer to their second championship in four years, and it would also help him in his stated goal of putting the cancer behind him.
Not just medically, but mentally. And not just in his mind, but everyone else's, too.
"This year it's Jon Lester, the cancer survivor, not Jon Lester, the pitcher," he said. "That's what I eventually want to get to."
Cook's 2004 season ended in August when doctors discovered blood clots in his lungs. He returned almost a full year later and won six straight games and baseball's Tony Conigliaro Award for overcoming adversity through spirit and determination.
"He was put in a position where not only was his sport going to be taken away, but so was his life," Hurdle said. "I think it's opened his eyes up to a lot of different things, but also I think it hasn't taken away his aggressiveness, his desire to make pitches, to win games, to be the best pitcher he can be.
"I think it's given him a good perspective as he continues to play this game and the importance of also being a father and being a husband and being a teammate, and I'm sure Jon Lester falls into that exact same category."
The second-longest tenured member of the organization, Cook was the opening day starter this year and went 8-7 with a 4.12 ERA, but he hasn't pitched in a major league game since Aug. 10 because of a strained side muscle.
Hurdle called the decision to leave him off the NLCS roster the toughest of his managerial career, but Cook stayed ready by throwing in simulated games during his layoff. Now he's scheduled to face Lester in Game 4 and, if the Rockies can extend the series, Game 7, too.
"It is kind of ironic with him going through what he went through, and me what I went through," Cook said. "It's tough enough to get here, and what we've been through, just to keep our focus, keep our faith, and just realize ... that baseball is not the most important thing.
"Once you realize that baseball is not the most important thing in the world, you're able to relax, put it back in perspective, play it like a game and just have fun. And I'm sure that's what he's been able to do, too."