SAN FRANCISCO -- Brothers Travis and Cameron Newton of Sacramento, Calif., were standing beyond the left-field bleachers Friday night inside AT&T Park, wearing "Team Delaney" T-shirts and holding up "I STAND UP FOR ____" placards with the name "Delaney" written on them in marker.
Delaney is 3, and she is fighting a good fight against brain cancer.
The Newton brothers stood with everyone else at the start of the sixth inning, as Major League Baseball used its biggest stage for the sixth year in a row to hold a live Stand Up To Cancermoment for a capacity crowd and a global FOX viewing audience. Players, umpires, all on-field personnel and fans held up the signs, as MLB dedicated Game 3 of the 110th World Series to advancing the fight against cancer.
After holding up their signs, Travis texted the third brother in their family, Merlin. He's a Livermore-Pleasanton firefighter, and he was watching at home with little Delaney. Merlin's fellow firefighter, Neal Sanchez, was there at the ballpark with the two brothers.
"It was sad and emotional at the same time, seeing the crowd quiet and then seeing the players holding the signs, too, because everyone has been affected by it," Travis said. "I was just texting my brother, who is Delaney's dad, and he's watching the game at home and he said it's hard for him. Even he was tearing up."
Delaney, you should know, is an inspiring little girl.
"It started when she was 2, had brain surgery, six rounds of chemo, 20 days of focal radiation, here at UCSF 2 [University of California-San Francisco]," Travis said. "So everything is going in the right direction now. We took a couple pictures together for it. The last year has been, to say the least, hell. But it's going in the right direction now."
SU2C co-founders Rusty Robertson, Lisa Paulsen and Sue Schwartz were interviewed outside Commissioner Bud Selig's suite after the event, and they said the story of Delaney and the three brothers perfectly symbolizes the mission of their organization, backed since 2008 by founding donor MLB and supported year-round by MLB and its 30 clubs and fans.
"Only if we come together can we as one really fight this disease. We've been so fortunate with Major League Baseball, because they've been able to reach the people, tell them who we are and what we're all about," Robertson said. "Everybody needs someone to help them get better and get the word out. With Major League Baseball, the leadership of Bud Selig and all the owners, we are so grateful that now we can actually turn to that child and her parents and say, 'We are on the right track. Stand Up To Cancer is doing something that's not been done before. We can honestly tell you now that we have great results.'"
"Bringing such a powerful platform as MLB to the masses, to have everybody understand the importance of team science, you're all about building teams and we're doing the same thing with critical researchers all working together at the same time for the benefit of patients," Paulsen said.
For the sixth consecutive year, MLB is dedicating the first four games of the World Series to raising the awareness of important causes associated with charitable initiatives and MLB partners. In Kansas City, Game 1 was dedicated to veterans and military families with a focus on Welcome Back Veterans, and Game 2 put the spotlight on education and ALS awareness. In San Francisco, the focus has been on helping end cancer in our lifetimes, and Game 4 is youth outreach all day and night.
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