LOS ANGELES -- When baseball pauses action on the field to commemorate the Stand Up To Cancer moment every year during the All-Star Game and the World Series, its poignancy permeates throughout the baseball-watching world, whether it's on TV or at the ballpark.
No matter what is happening during the game, or how tense and suspense-filled an inning becomes, everything simply stops for that one moment when tens of thousands of fans, players, managers and other on-field personnel pause to share a moment of reflective silence at the end of the fifth inning.
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Every seat at Dodger Stadium contained a Stand Up To Cancer placard for fans to hold up during that moment of silence. A white space in the middle of each card contained the words "Those We've Lost" or "Kids in the Fight," but it also has room for spectators to make it more personal and add a name of someone in their life who is fighting cancer, or someone who has fought it in the past.
Those in uniform on the field, as well as umpires, also had the option to hold a placard with a handwritten name of a loved one touched by cancer.
MLB and SU2C commemorated their 10-year partnership this year at the All-Star Game in Washington, D.C. Prior to Game 4 of the World Series, MLB posted a video on Facebook of two Major League pitchers who both recently battled -- and beat -- testicular cancer, talking about their experiences.
Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon, 26, and Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis, 29, have talked at length about their shocking diagnoses and the resolve that motivated them throughout their recovery. Currently, both are cancer-free.
"A couple of days after the diagnosis, I said, 'Dude, that's sorry, man. Don't feel sorry for yourself,'" Taillon said in the video. "People might feel sorry for you, but life moves on, and you need to beat this."
Bettis said when he first received his diagnosis, he felt like the world was coming down on him, but he then vowed to change his attitude and remain positive.
"It's really easy to go down that path of, 'Why me?'" he said. "And, 'What did I do to deserve this?' And, 'Poor me,' and you start to feel sorry for yourself. Just as easy, it can be flipped around.
"Not only as a mindset, but the people you're surrounding yourself with. That's what gets you through it. It kicks your ass, and it's not something that's easy to take on, much less by yourself."
Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) is a groundbreaking initiative created to accelerate innovative cancer research that gets new therapies to patients more quickly. Major League Baseball and its 30 clubs have donated more than $40 million to SU2C since the partnership was first formed in 2009.
As a founding donor, MLB has conducted significant awareness-building efforts through public service announcements, in-stadium promotions and various fundraising events.