Fast Break
BASEBALL
Red Sox’ Lester’s father also has cancer
Jon Lester’s father has a highly treatable form of cancer, the Boston Red Sox left-hander and lymphoma survivor said in an interview with ESPN.
“It’s very different than mine,” Lester told the network, which aired the interview Sunday before Boston’s first trip of the season to Lester’s native Seattle area.
“His is slow growing,” Lester said of his father, John. “His is something that he’s going to die with, not die from. … He’s doing really well. He has to go through the treatments … but at the same time, it’s going to knock it down to where he can live a normal, healthy life.”
Lester, who is from Tacoma, threw a no-hitter against Kansas City in his previous start. He was on the mound Sunday against the Oakland Athletics. Oakland won 6-3.
Lester is best known for his remarkable return to the majors last year after being diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2006.
BASEBALL
Watch your back, Willie
Keith Hernandez ripped his former New York Mets teammate, Gary Carter, during Sunday’s game on New York television station WPIX, calling him “unconscious” in the wake of Carter openly campaigning for the managerial job currently occupied by Willie Randolph.
“I have great respect for Gary as a player,” said Hernandez, now a TV analyst. “He’s a Hall of Famer. When Johnny Bench left the game, he was the premier catcher in the National League.
“But, that being said, and I’ve kept quiet for a long time, but for the people out there listening, just go in the dictionary and look up `unconscious’ and you’ll find a picture of Gary Carter.
“I know that’s strong, but it just happens too many times and it’s just, you’re walking around unconscious.”
Carter said in a Sirius Satellite Radio interview Friday that he had reached out to the Mets when he learned Randolph’s job might be in jeopardy.
Before Hernandez’s shot at Carter, play-by-play man Gary Cohen said: “Regardless of what happens, you can’t be any more indelicate or graceless than Gary Carter was in saying the things he said about being available to take over the job. I cannot believe he said what he said.”