With 51 games remaining in the regular season, Red Sox manager John Farrell sat at the podium during his pregame press conference Wednesday faced with many questions about injuries, availabilities, and all the minutiae that will collectively help shape the team’s push for the playoffs.
What made him decide to put All-star pitcher Steven Wright at risk by sending him to pinch run, a move that led to Wright being scratched from his Thursday start after he irritated his shoulder diving back to second base on Sunday in Los Angeles? Would Blake Swihart be lost for the season because of a severe ankle sprain that included separation of his peroneal tendon?
Farrell parried the hindsight-enhanced qualms and quibbles that sometimes irk managers. But on this particular day, Aug. 10, Farrell didn’t mind so much.
“I’d rather talk about peroneal tendons rather than Burkitt lymphoma,’’ Farrell said.
It has been one year since Farrell, on a road trip to Detroit last August, was diagnosed with cancer. He’d gone to Henry Ford Hospital for routine hernia surgery and wound up diagnosed with Stage 1 non-Hodgkin’s Burkitt lymphoma. Farrell missed the last 48 games of the season, ceding his role to Torey Lovullo, while undergoing chemotherapy.
“It was hell going through [it],’’ Farrell said. “But I’ve learned a lot about myself, I’ve learned a lot about the things that, again, life deals people and you find that you put faith in a lot of people to help you get through some tough moments, so honestly I’m very fortunate.
“And I hold a hell of a lot of gratitude towards the things of daily life right now.’’
The Red Sox announced that Farrell’s cancer was in remission on the final day of the regular season, Oct. 22, saying that he would return as manager contingent on further medical tests. Farrell said he should receive the results of his one-year checkup Thursday morning.
Before the diagnosis, Farrell hadn’t been experiencing any symptoms. He thought he was in great health. Saying goodbye to his career, much less family and friends, wasn’t something he’d had to think about seriously. He’d never pictured himself weakened by grueling treatments, either.
Farrell expected very little of what has happened to him in the past year, a change in course he said he has grown from.
“I’d like to think I’m a better person,’’ he said. “Maybe not everything works out as you anticipate, but there’s a different perspective on things, I will tell you that.’’
Farrell said he has become a better manager, too. He has experience to draw from when telling players, who tend to see everything with “a sense of urgency’’ where every start or at-bat seems overwhelmingly important, not to get worked up over a small setback or issue.
“If you can give a little perspective when maybe guys take a step back, take a breather a little bit as a result of sharing an experience . . . then there’s been some help given along the way,’’ he said.
Farrell also has a stronger appreciation for his work in baseball. His own expectations were challenged when it was taken away from him for a time, but when he came back he was suddenly saddled with the expectations of others, for his team to win, once again.
On the one-year anniversary of his cancer diagnosis, Farrell is managing a team 1½ games out of first place in the AL East. He may not have expected that, either.
“I guess the best way I can say it is there’s a real reason why they pop champagne when this is over,’’ Farrell said. “Because it isn’t easy. And we’re right in the thick of it and that’s what we want to sign up for every year is be in the hunt, be in the race, hopefully we’re dumping champagne.’’
Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.
