Marcus Thames got the news he was dreading in October 2010. The Yankees had just beaten Minnesota in the ALDS, and while his teammates headed to Texas for the next round, the outfielder jumped on a plane back home to Louisville, Miss.
His mom had pneumonia, bad. She regularly contracted it, a result of her being confined to a bed most days, paralyzed from the neck down, but this was worse. As Thames recalled, the doctor was “kinda giving up on her.” He rushed down there, leaving baseball behind without telling her she was coming.