Baseball Rebound EV Hurler Recovers From Cancer To Join Knights Pitching Corps

The summer after seventh grade, Paul McDavid was on top of the world. The following spring he was flat on his back.

Four years later, after overcoming a life-threatening bout with leukemia, the East Valley High School senior is enjoying a renaissance in his first year as a pitcher for the Knights varsity.

“We were thinking he’d be our No. 4 pitcher,” said Knight coach Kurt Krauth. “Right now he’s our best one.”

A 12-year-old indulging his passion for baseball, the lanky left-hander hurled East Farms to the 1991 Spokane Valley Baseball Midget League championship.

The following spring he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, the most treatable form of the blood cell cancer.

During eighth-grade baseball practice, McDavid began experiencing physical pain and extreme fatigue.

“I was so tired I couldn’t get (out of bed),” he said. “It got so bad I couldn’t walk anymore.”

When the cancer was finally diagnosed it became a 3-1/2-year family ordeal of hospitalization and extensive chemotherapy treatments.

“Your life changes overnight,” said Paul’s mother, Faith McDavid. “You’re going along and then all of a sudden you’re launched into a world where you’ve never been before.”

She credited their doctor, Frank Reynolds, and hospital staff with helping them through the traumatic time.

For a year, said his dad, Jon, the family lived at Deaconess Medical Center. All the while, the thought of baseball kept their son going.

“It helped him,” said Faith. “His identity with baseball was so strong since he was little and he had played so well he could hardly wait to get back.”

By way of analogy, his approach to battling cancer was like his approach to pitching a game.

“I was thinking to myself, ‘Three up and three down,”’ said McDavid last week when he faced West Valley with two runs in, no outs and the bases loaded. “Whenever I pitch and my attitude is to get this guy, I usually do.”

There were leukemia cells in 97 percent of his blood marrow. Within a week of chemo only 6 percent remained.

Although he missed one summer of baseball, he was back pitching by the ninth grade while undergoing daily treatments.

“The thing I’ll remember is during my freshman year, even though I was sick, I struck out 15 batters in a game,” McDavid said.

McDavid, said Krauth, is sneaky quick and has the ability to change speeds. The drawback was his lack of strength, the residual effects of therapy.

It delayed his appearance on varsity until this year. His longest outing has been five innings of shutout ball against Clarkston. He’s had two three-inning shutout stints, including Tuesday when he came in against West Valley and worked out of the jam, then pitched two more scoreless innings before tiring.

His hitting has been just as impressive. He has seven hits in eight games including three extra base hits.

This year his goal is to pitch a complete game and to ultimately play in college. His dad, who played at North Central, said that he is hoping to enroll at Gonzaga University.

In July of 1994, the Wishing Star Foundation, which honors requests by cancer victims, granted McDavid’s wish: A trip to the Major League All-Star game in Pittsburgh.

It was an expenses-paid trip for three generations of McDavid men, grandfather Jack, father Jon and Paul - and a life highlight for all three.

The real miracle, said Paul, is that he’s been cured.

“I’ve seen a lot of people die from what I had,” he said. “Everything went right. I wasn’t terribly sick. I lost my hair, but it grew back. The doctor told me I’m going to live a long time.”

Presumably with the game of baseball in his future.

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