BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox had a game to play Friday night, hours after learning manager John Farrell suffers from lymphoma and will miss the rest of the season to undergo treatment.
“We know he’s going to get through this. We’ll all get through it together and do anything we can to help him,” second baseman Dustin Pedroia said after joining Farrell and designated hitter David Ortiz at a media gathering in which Farrell announced the news.
Farrell said he has Stage 1 lymphoma and considers himself lucky a mass was discovered during hernia surgery in Detroit last Monday.
“I can honestly tell you I’m extremely fortunate that it was found,” Farrell said, adding he never had symptoms before the mass was found.
“He got very, very lucky that he went to have that hernia taken care of,” Ortiz said. “[If] he doesn’t get that surgery, then the news would have been different. He had no symptoms.”
Ortiz said a choked-up Hanley Ramirez told him the news in the training room before Farrell told all of the players.
“We were kind of in shock,” Ortiz said. “We’re going to give John all the support that we can give him so he can get through this and be back next year back to normal.”
Bench coach Torey Lovullo will manage the team for the rest of the season. General manager Ben Cherington said a coach may be added to the staff to aid with the workload.
“There’s a lot of respect for him, I think, not just within the Red Sox organization but throughout baseball,” said Cherington, who said he was “sort of in shock” when Farrell reached him by phone Thursday.
“Obviously, a lot of people are already reaching out. He’s someone who’s spent his whole life in baseball — he’s played, he’s coached, he’s worked in the front office, obviously he’s managed now. … He probably knows more people in baseball than just about anybody, so he’s hearing from a lot of people, as you’d expect.”
The Red Sox franchise’s connection to cancer — and with its Jimmy Fund — is legendary; the local WEEI Jimmy Fund Radio-thon will take place next week. The club also went through current Chicago Cub Jon Lester’s cancer in 2006.
“We love John,” said Pedroia, who said “your heart stops” when you get this kind of news. “It’s tough. Everything else doesn’t matter. Health is the most important thing.
“Your first reaction is you’re in shock. Next reaction is: How do we get him better? And he’s going to start that process soon.”
Farrell said “It’s been a surreal four, five days. … It’s been a shocker.
“It’s localized. It’s highly curable. I’m extremely fortunate to not only be with people with the Red Sox, but also access to MGH [Massachusetts General Hospital].”
Cherington added that “unfortunately, in his position, there’s the public aspect of it that you have to acknowledge and deal with, and we have to plan [for that]. I’ve tried to get the opportunity yesterday and this morning just to talk to him as a human being, as a friend, let him know that I’m with him and that he’ll get through this and we’ll get through it together. And, as he said today, he’ll get started next week.”