Hicks mans plate on special night despite loss

DETROIT -- John Hicks was behind the plate for 198 pitches Friday night, including 96 pitches over just 3 2/3 innings from Jordan Zimmermann, amidst Michigan’s worst heat wave of the year. He saw a wild pitch score the first of Toronto’s many runs in a 12-1 Tigers loss. He was robbed of a base hit on a diving stop by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

And yet, it was the first pitch Hicks caught Friday that made the Tigers catcher’s night.

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“I was very nervous, because my family wanted me to throw a strike,” Karen Hicks, John’s mother, said of her ceremonial first pitch. “And I've been practicing for two weeks with all my family -- my sons, my husband, grandchildren. They wanted me to do it right. Whew, I'm so glad I did.”

While hundreds of breast cancer survivors lined the infield as part of Pink Out the Park Night at Comerica Park, John Hicks got behind the plate and held up his glove, providing a target for his mother to hit. She fought off the tears and lobbed in a strike, then got a big hug from her son.

“It was tough,” he said. “It was definitely emotional, just thinking about everything she's been through and how strong she's been. It was definitely an emotional experience but obviously a really special one.”

Karen Hicks has watched her son pursue his big league dreams for years, fighting to stay in the Majors since debuting in 2015. For most of that time, she has had a battle for her life, ever since being diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer, a particularly aggressive form.

While John prepared for Major League camp with the Mariners in 2015, Karen was undergoing biopsies which revealed the cancer. While he fought for a job, she began treatment, starting with surgery and continuing with chemotherapy. She had just finished chemo and was awaiting radiation treatment when her son received his first big league call-up in August 2015. The family made the trip to watch his debut against the White Sox in Chicago.

“She did chemo and had a double mastectomy, got rid of [the cancer],” the Tigers’ catcher explained last week. “She found another spot under her arm and that was cancer as well, and they got rid of that. And then after that, she just has regular scans just because of the type it is, and they found a couple spots on her lungs. She has done chemo, and now it’s just about maintenance and keeping them shrinking instead of growing.”

He sees the battle going on when he’s home during the offseason, and follows it from afar when pitchers and catchers report. The games give her something to follow, whether she’s at the park or watching on television.

“I'm proud of all family, but oh gosh, it just makes me so happy to see him playing,” she said.

Friday was the rare occasion when she could take the field with him.

“I don't know how to describe it,” she said. “I'm just so thankful to be here, so thankful to be alive. God has been good to me and my family in that order. It's real emotional. I'm very thankful I didn't cry too much.”

Like Karen Hicks, Tigers bench coach Steve Liddle’s wife Anne was on the field. She, too, battled HER2-positive breast cancer. Though that particular form has a notoriously high rate of recurrence, she has been cancer-free for two years, a blessing she credits to early diagnosis after a routine mammogram detected it.

“It’s emotional and overwhelming,” she said. “I think there are survivors out there that are still going through treatment, and they made the effort to come. It touches my heart.”