As we all know, yesterday we all celebrated Mother's Day. Since all 30 teams had scheduled games, making a day to spend with their mothers impossible, Major League Baseball had something different in mind.
The MLB has been issuing pink bats on Mother's Day for some time now, but I feel that it has never meant more than this year. It is not only a great thing to do for Major League ballplayers, but it has become a fashion statement.
The Pink bats are issued on Mother's Day as part of the "Going To Bat Against Breast Cancer" program to help raise awareness about breast cancer, which is the second most common cancer in all the world.
Among women in the United States, breast cancer is the most common cancer as well as the second-most deadly.
Fans have the chance to bid on game-used pink equipment worn by Major League players on Sunday, including bats, wristbands, and catcher gear, with proceeds going to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
Fans can buy custom pink bats for $79.99 on slugger.com, with $10 of the proceeds going to the foundation as well.
Among several of baseball's stars to man up and rock pink on Sunday were Red Sox stars Jason Bay, David Ortiz, Mike Lowell, and J.D. Drew.
Bay had a few hits in the game, including the go-ahead double in the eighth inning that allowed the Red Sox to win, 4-3.
Also as a part of the festivities, an honorary bat girl was honored for each team at the 15 stadiums hosting games on Sunday. The honorary bat girl was to be a breast cancer survivor, and for the Red Sox was Walpole, Mass., native Dorothy Mucciarone.
She was honored at Fenway Park before the game as Boston's honorary bat girl, after battling and defeating breast cancer in 2006. She went through a mastectomy and chemotherapy, from September 2006 to February 2007.
The long road of treatment paid off, however, because now Miss Mucciarone is cancer free. However, along the road to recovery, Dorothy lost her sister, Peggy, to the cancer.
Despite that, Dorothy said that she was inspired by watching Red Sox players who defeated cancer: Jon Lester, who had non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and Mike Lowell, who overcame testicular cancer early on in his Major League career.
She said they showed her "that cancer is just a speed bump on the road of life, and that life is brighter and happier on the other side."
This campaign may not be enough to halt breast cancer in its tracks, but I, for one, applaud Major League Baseball and all it's efforts from fans and players alike to support awareness and research of breast cancer.
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