Ohio State baseball team steps up for ill teammate

The bond between teammates can lead to great things.

Such is the case at Ohio State University, where the baseball players spent their Monday trying to see if any of them were a match for a bone-marrow transplant for a teammate.

Two weeks prior, freshman pitcher Zach Farmer learned he had myeloid leukemia.

So, as reported by BuckeyExtra, the team went to work.

Senior captain Tim Wetzel, who has been a potential donor on the national bone-marrow transplant list for 18 months, told coach Greg Beals it would be a good idea to recruit the team. Farmer has had his first round of chemotherapy at The Ohio State James Cancer Hospital. He’ll be eligible for a bone-marrow transplant if he goes into remission.

Thirty-seven team members, including Beals, signed consent forms, filled out a short personal history and swabbed their cheeks with four Q-Tips from a DNA testing kit to see whether they are a match for Farmer or anyone else in the nation.

Wetzel is set to graduate next December and from there he will apply to medical school. The captain says Farmer’s battle has united everyone on the team.

“Everyone was on board with this,” he said. “This puts the game of baseball into perspective. This is more about the game. Winning and losing is important, but right now Zach is in a battle for his life. We’re trying to help get him through this.”

As of this writing, a match for Farmer had yet to be found, but the hope is not only will one be located, but members of the team will be added to the national registry and possibly be able to help someone else.

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