WE LIKE to think about things in finite terms. We like for there to be an ending, a finish, so we can move away and get on with it.
When the Dodgers drafted Devin Smeltzer in the fifth round in June and paid him a $500,000 bonus, 33 percent above his recommended slot value, his story from pediatric cancer survivor to Bishop Eustace star to professional baseball pitcher seemed happily completed.
It is foolish to think that Devin has finally won his battle. That's not how cancer works. It looms and it lingers, like a threatening mist.