LOS ANGELES — Valued pinch-hitter Matt Szczur wasn’t much use to the Cubs during the National League Division Series. Left off the roster – a mild surprise to some – the Cubs made do without him by keeping Albert Almora instead. In the NLCS, Szczur became an afterthought to Cubs fans when he was left out once again.
Until Wednesday in Game 5, that is. That’s when Anthony Rizzo used Szczur’s bat and broke out of a slump by hitting a home run and two singles in a 10-2 Cubs victory which evened the series.
After the game, Szczur was a media darling in the Cubs clubhouse.
“He’s done that a few times, grabbed my bat,” Szczur said. “It’s the same weight and size, just a different model. So he just grabbed one.
“Tony doesn’t owe me anything. He’s picked me up at dinner quite a few times.’’
On the other side of the world, far away in the Ukraine, Szczur will be a hero each and every day to Anastasia Olkhovsky, a young girl who owes her life to the 27-year-old Cub — whether he’s hitting a pinch homer for the Cubs, lending a bat to a teammate or sitting on the sidelines. Szczer, while a two-sport star athlete at Villanova signed up to be a bone marrow donor for her.
Shortly after he led Villanova’s football team to a FCS national championship in the fall of 2009, Sczer got a call from the National Donor registry informing him he was a match.
The following spring, because of Anastasia’s deteriorating condition, Szczur interrupted his baseball season – a crucial one for him in advance of the major league draft – to do the procedure.
Diagnosed with leukemia at three months, Anastasia, received Szczur’s marrow at age 3 has made a recovery. The leukemia is in remission.
Anastasia Olkhovsky
ESPN’s moving E60 feature on her story and Szczur’s part in it aired a second time Wednesday. Rizzo, a cancer survivor, pointed to Szczer after his homer Wednesday and said after the game he was inspired by the E60 piece.
Szczur said he spoke to her via skype about a week ago.
“She’s doing well,’’ he said.
A footnote: Because of a shortage, more young males are needed to donate bone marrow. Transplant doctors request younger donors more than 95 percent of the time and, on average, men have more body mass than women and more marrow. Be The Match, which help patients get the life-saving marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant they need, say Szczer has raised much-needed awareness.
For more information about marrow donation or to join the registry,visit BeTheMatch.org.
