TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa Drillers hosted their first Friday night home game of the season this evening for the annual St. Francis Cancer Center Night.
850 guests from the hospital's CLIMB Support Group attended.
Samuel Pitts, whose mom, Carrie, defeated breast cancer last year, threw the first pitch.
"It's gonna be quite amazing. For them to ask him to do that, boy," Carrie said.
Carrie Pitts says receiving a cancer diagnosis was a curve ball she never expected.
"It's not just about you. It's the whole family. It affects everybody," Carrie said. "Just to have that feeling of relief, that you made it through the treatment, everything you've worked for, is a good feeling. To be healthy again and to claim your life back, and try to get some semblance of your family's life back, it's a good feeling."
The Pitts family is one of many at St. Francis' Cancer Center Night at the Tulsa Drillers' game, not only there for the game but to support those affected by the disease.
"I'm a little overwhelmed. St. Francis has been very, very good to me, and this is just another way that they give back," Carrie said.
It's an illness that's impacted the lives of many, including the Drillers' manager, Scott Hennessey.
"I had squamous cell carcinoma. I had a tumor like thirteen and a half inches on the right side of my neck, right there," Hennessey said.
Hennessey says he got the "all clear" in December after a battle he refused to give up on.
"Just fight and grind," Hennessey said. "It's just like a baseball game, or football game, or basketball game. It's a game you have to win. And that's the way I looked at it. It was just something that you couldn't lose, and I just tried to win every day."
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