Sometimes it takes a little league to make a big impact. Pat Welter reports on how the West Raleigh Baseball Association has been their for one of their own in a time of need.
Bobby Norris coaches baseball for the love of the game. This past weekend, his league made sure he felt the love in a time of need. Fire. The West Raleigh Baseball Association plays to win. Keep the plays in front of you. Slow down. But most of all they play for the love of the game. Three. Bobby Norris is the head coach of the West Raleigh Braves. Knock it down to one, but right now every team is wearing special uniforms and socks. Hey. All right. At his mask. This past spring, he took a curveball. He didn't see coming. So my left thigh had been bigger than my right for about a year and a half. It just kept getting bigger when his leg and foot went numb on a work trip. Good effort, good effort. He asked his assistant coach who was an orthopedic surgeon for help. Got curious about it and said, you know, that's, that's unusual. Uh, let's look, more tests showed Bobby had myoid liposarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer that can spread to anywhere in the body did 18 radiation treatments for my thigh. I took a couple of weeks off and then I had a, they called it a radical resection of the tumor. So they basically had to go in to pull the muscles apart to get the tumor out. When the team found out about Bobby's fight. A couple of families reached out to the league's executive director. Every, every team at West Raleigh and every player is going to be wearing socks. There's also a QR code for families to consider donating to the Duke. Research cancer. I made a bunch of necklaces at my house to um raise money for um coach Bobby. The strikeout Sarcoma game has raised close to $5000 in counting. Let's go. The 10, he got it well done. It's incredible. It's um, I don't know. I, I I it's just fantastic. II I can't believe everybody's doing this. You got it. Drive one hit a gap. Have fun. Bobby got into coaching for his sons. Get over him, get over him. Come on, get out here, let's go. But they found a community. They're not getting paid. We're not saving lives here. We're teaching kids to play baseball. It's, it's a very special place in a lot of ways. Now, Bobby's always gonna have to be on guard, but Julian, he tells me he is currently cancer free. So encouraging. Thank you, Pat.