Kansas baseball’s Rare Disease Game illustrates bond between KU coaches, families, players
LAWRENCE — Saturday wasn’t the first time Kansas baseball stepped up to make a game more significant than the final score.
There was the Autism Awareness Game in April, because head coach Dan Fitzgerald and his wife have a son who is on the spectrum. Actually, that was the second edition of the event. And Fitzgerald, not to mention pitching coach Brandon Scott, both highlighted Saturday that they felt it went over incredibly well.
But the response Fitzgerald and Scott saw from the Autism Awareness Game provided momentum for why Saturday’s first Rare Disease Game happened at all with the Jayhawks. Scott and his wife have a daughter who has a rare disease, and Fitzgerald, effusive in his praise for the parents Scott and Scott’s wife are, wanted to do something that could help shed light on the CSNK2B Foundation that Scott’s wife is the president and founding member of.
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“My daughter has CSNK2B, which is a — she has a seizure disorder,” Scott said Saturday. “When she was younger it was touch-and-go there for a while. Obviously, she’s one of 30 in the United States. So, it’s a very rare disorder. And we’re still learning, and we’re still striving to raise money through the foundation for research so that someday kids like her can have an answer.”
Scott also mentioned Saturday’s game at home against Houston was special for his family, and that he was really excited about the crowd that showed up. That crowd saw Kansas pick up a come-from-behind victory in Big 12 Conference play. But regardless of the outcome, the awareness raised mattered.
The number of families Scott’s has come into contact with since they first discovered a name for their daughter’s condition has grown, and according to Scott that’s because of a research study through Columbia University. The initial diagnosis, as outlined on the foundation’s website, came in 2018. Although Scott noted their daughter is at a point where she’s young enough where she might not understand the grand scheme of what’s going on, he expressed confidence in the idea that she will and how proud she’ll be of her mother.
Scott said not only is Fitzgerald his boss, but a best friend for 20 years. If something is important to Scott, it’ll be important to Fitzgerald. From Fitzgerald’s perspective, this is also an opportunity for everyone within the program to draw attention to something other than themselves, another chance for gratitude and humility to be at the forefront for the players.
“It would be a colossal waste of time if all we ever did was baseball,” Fitzgerald said. “These guys, if they become the rare unicorns that play in the big leagues until they’re 40, they’ve got a lot of life left after that to where these are the things that you really need to be aware of in life. And you need to understand the platform and voice you have when you’re blessed like we are to play at the highest level of college baseball.”
Kansas’ slate of home games this season ended with its series this past weekend against Houston, which the Jayhawks won to improve to 29-18 overall and 15-12 in the Big 12. So, if there’s going to be another game with the significance of Saturday’s it’ll likely have to come next year. But Fitzgerald appeared open to having similar games in the future.
If all they did was talk about getting runners to third and scoring, Fitzgerald said, this would be a waste of time. If people saw how the players are around Fitzgerald’s son, and Scott’s daughter, they’d see how much those moments in life matter to them. And should another game like this be scheduled, Fitzgerald likely won’t anticipate having to hold a team meeting about it — because they didn’t need one for the Rare Disease Game either.
“One of the cool things about KU is that, the head coach’s playbook is — we get to choose things like this,” Fitzgerald said. “And so, the autism thing is really special to me. And this is really special to Brandon. And as a coach, the things that become special to you inevitably have a trickle down to be special to your team.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas baseball’s Rare Disease Game illustrates bond between coaches
