CHICAGO – Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura expressed shock over the news that good friend John Farrell, manager of the Boston Red Sox, announced Friday that he had lymphoma.
“I've known John a long time, but I think anytime you hear that news, it's always shocking and you feel for him,” said Ventura, who was a college teammate of Farrell's at Oklahoma State. “I haven't gotten a hold of him yet, but it's, you know, I think you realize, I think you put things in perspective, you know, what's really important.
“He's always done a great job wherever he's been, but it does affect you a little bit, of looking at perspective of the people you deal with every day and your guys in here, you know, real-life stuff.”
When Farrell made his announcement Friday, he said his lymphoma is “localized,” and “highly curable.” It was discovered when he had a recent surgery for a hernia.
Major League Baseball teams often put their players through preventative tests such as annual physicals and in-season tests for other issues such as skin cancer. The White Sox this week underwent dermatology tests.
After his test, Ventura had three suspicious marks that were removed, one on the bridge of his nose, one on the side of his face and one on his neck. When he met the media Saturday, he had a bandage over his nose and one on his neck.
“You know, we always get it done in spring training and then once during the year,” Ventura said. “You're always protective of putting sunscreen on and everything else, but when you're a kid, you probably didn't put it on as much as you should. Any time we do it and they see something, I'm always, 'Go ahead and take care of it,' right when you do. You can see I got zapped pretty good. And there was a couple other spots you're not going to see."
And while he wouldn’t wish hernia surgery on anybody, in this case, it turned out to be the right thing at the right time for Farrell.
“Yeah, I mean, just the way they caught it, you feel real fortunate and lucky that they found it when they did, that something happened to him before that so they could find it,” Ventura said.