Big scare for Sobolewski

Blue Jays minor leaguer Mark Sobolewski, in his words, after experiencing the scare of a lifetime: 

I have not told very many people about the past few weeks or so of my life. I am posting this album to raise awareness about skin cancer. Specifically, I want people to become more aware of melanoma. I'm a healthy, strong, 25-year-old professional athlete who prides himself on his physical condition and well-being. What started as an unusual mark on my neck/throat that I thought to be an ingrown hair, pimple, or something not very serious, turned out to be a deadly form of cancer. On Dec. 29, I found out that I had melanoma. Needless to say I was completely shocked and scared. For those who do not know, it is the worst form of skin cancer. I am not someone who has abused the beach, gone to tanning beds, or used any tanning oils. I have, however, grown up in Florida playing lots of baseball while having fair skin, blue eyes, and some moles. After meeting with a specialist in Tampa, I had surgery Jan. 11 to remove much of the surrounding area and two surrounding lymph nodes in hopes of eliminating the problem and seeing that it did not spread anywhere. Today, I am happy to say that it did not spread anywhere!

Mark Sobolewski batted .272 with eight homers and 49 RBI in his first Double-A season. Kevin Littlefield photo

I am truly fortunate and blessed that this was caught in time. Thanks to Joanie Martin for recommending that I go see a dermatologist, and thanks to Dani for having me ask her mother what she thought. To everyone: Please be sure to get your skin checked out! When detected early, doctors can save lives! I would also like to thank my family and others who were aware of this for their support and prayers. And most importantly, thanks God.

One day closer to spring training

January is the l-o-n-g-e-s-t stretch of the off-season for pro baseball players, and it's starting to make them a little stir crazy. Justin Jackson was obsessed with gaining 2,000 followers on Twitter, and he finally got there. Now J-Jax is giving away a game-used bat and dropping videos.  "Stay Thor-Mode," he says ... Cabin-fevered Kevin Ahrens told his Facebook friends "You gotta love pedicures. Makes the feet so soft. Colby Rasmus came out of his tree stand and hollered at his FB peeps. "How's everybody been during this long off-season?" he said. Rasmus, IMO, will be a bargain for $2.7 million in 2012.


Ex-Fisher Cats outfielder Ryan Patterson signed a minor-league deal with the Marlins. He's been indy balling the last three seasons, playing in Wichita, St. Paul and Fort Worth ... Congrats to @BlueJayGal for winning the game-used Moises Sierra bat that I gave away on Twitter. I picked that one up at the Fisher Cats team store for 20 bucks.

Making the Blue Jays proud

Ricky Romero's father, Ricardo, was border-smuggled to the states in 1979. He's now a truck driver in Los Angeles, and Ricky's mom, Sandra, drives a school bus. These are some of the details in a fabulous new SportsNet video examining Ricky's ascent to stardom. Love it.

So happy for that kid. I call him a "kid" because I'll always remember Romero as a big-name prospect, struggling to navigate through Double-A -- for three seasons. One day he taped a Sports Illustrated article inside his locker for motivation. The SI story was on Troy Tulowitzski, coming off an '07 Rookie of the Year campaign, and the article hammered Romero, who'd been selected ahead of Tulo in the '05 draft. "Right now, we made the wrong choice," then-GM J.P. Ricciardi was quoted in the magazine.

Ricky Romero is representing East LA in a big way.
 Kevin Littlefield Photo

Romero made 10 starts before earning his first Double-A win, and he posted a 10-17 record (4.97 ERA) in three seasons at New Hampshire. In August 2007, the Fisher Cats were making a push to the playoffs and needed a clutch start from Romero. He was lit up by the Sea Dogs, yielding eight runs in 2-2/3 innings.

"This is where I spent a lot of time maturing and growing up. This is where I learned the highs and lows," the Blue Jays ace later told me on a return trip to Manchester, N.H. "I kept telling myself that when I finally get there (to the majors), Toronto is going to know they made the right choice."

Talking island life with Adeiny Hechavarria

When I asked Adeiny Hechavarria about growing up in Cuba, he said they played baseball in streets and most kids didn't have gloves. What about bats? Hech made a chopping motion with his right hand, describing how he and his friends would use a machete, hacking away at tree limbs with the proper thickness. These were the most memorable interviews of a championship season. 


Many times after Fisher Cats games -- after the newspaper deadline was met -- I'd return to the clubhouse and speak with assistant coach Danny Solano about Adeiny, who often stopped by to join us. It was fascinating. Here was a player turning double plays with John Tolisano, whose father had a batting cage installed in the backyard. Adeiny and his brother, Alien, grew up poor in Santiago De Cuba, crafting wooden bats from tree limbs.


“We didn’t have too many gloves, maybe a couple,” Adeiny told me (through Solano) for a feature story in the New Hampshire Union Leader. "Guys in Cuba don’t have anything. Guys here have everything. Here, your dad keeps you in the right track. Sometimes in Latin America, it’s not that way because your dad has to go to work and kids play all day in the street.”

Fisher Cats shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria in 2011. Kevin Littlefield photo

He went on to play for Cuba’s junior national team, defecting at a Pan-Am tournament in Mexico. “A lot of things went on that I can’t talk about. It’s difficult,” said Hechavarria, who signed for $10 million and found a way to move his father to Florida. When we last talked in August, he was trying to bring his mother and brother to the U.S. I wondered how much of his $10 million contract (through the 2013 season) has been spent on back-channel deals and agent payments.

Blue-collared Fisher Cats skipper Sal Fasano, a son of Italian immigrants, provided some money quotes when asked about Adeiny's background. "That's the beauty of this game. Once you fall in love, your background doesn't matter, even if you played catch with rocks as a kid."


In July, Adeiny made a game-saving play by ranging into the hole at short, back-handing a grounder, and firing home to throw out Reading's Stephen Susdorf in the ninth inning. "If he made that play in the majors, we'd be seeing it on SportsCenter and talking about it for a week," Fisher Cats pitching coach Pete Walker said.

Caption Contest!

Something about this pose and 'stache that is so cheesy yet effective. Best caption wins the card, plus a bunch more cards from that era. Will he get the call from the Hall?