For him, games play a big part

QUINCY -- Chemotherapy by day. Baseball by night.

It's an odd and wholly unfair juxtaposition, but for the time being it represents the life and times of 13-year-old Pat White of Quincy.

So there he was on the third floor of the miracle building on Binney Street Friday morning, prepping for a CAT scan and another two-hour chemo treatment. And there he was at Adams Field Friday night, playing second base and cracking an RBI single in Quincy's 6-0 Babe Ruth tourney victory over Braintree.

"Baseball plays a big role in my life," Pat said before the game. "It helps me not think about being sick. When I play baseball, I usually don't feel sick."

Baseball. It connects generations. It can hold up an entire region. And it can heal.

Cancer first visited Pat when he was 9. He was afflicted with rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of tissue cancer. The Quincy community rallied around Pat and his family in those torturous times and Quincy Youth Baseball started a Jimmy Fund tournament in his honor, while Pat went about the task of beating the cancer into remission.

Years passed, the tourney raised more than $42,000 for the Jimmy Fund, and Pat successfully completed treatment while pitching and playing infield as a Quincy Little Leaguer. Folks at the clinic remember how he'd tell the nurses to put the IV lines in his left arm because he's a righthander and he was scheduled to be on the mound later that day. Folks at the Little League field remember a 9-year-old pitcher vomiting between innings, then taking the hill and throwing more strikes.

It was all going pretty smoothly until two weeks ago when Pat relapsed, a fortnight before the fourth annual tournament.

"I was surprised and kind of bummed out," he recalled. "But, whatever. I can beat it."

Pat looked pretty good in the tourney opener. Wearing his No. 18 teal jersey, he made the plays at second and put the bat on the ball every time he went to the plate. His RBI single in the fifth inning helped Quincy break the game open, and he came around to score on another hit.

Pat had two hits and an RBI in Quincy's 5-1 victory over Canton Saturday and added an RBI double in a 14-3 triumph over Kingston last night. He's at the beginning of a nine-day, no-treatment cycle, which will make it easier to run down the first base line and turn a double play.

The new treatments at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are designed to shrink a tumor in his chest. He said they make him a little tired, but he hasn't needed a late-game substitution or a pinch runner.

"If I was a player, he's the one I'd want as a teammate," said coach Dick Lombardi, who, like a lot of folks in Quincy, has trouble talking about his brave infielder without welling up with tears. "The kids love him. And this is what keeps him going."

Lisa Scherber, who's been cheering up the kids at the clinic for 12 years, said, "He's undergoing a horrible, aggressive treatment, and he still wants to play baseball. He does not see this as an obstacle. I've never seen him get down. He's amazing. He's such an inspirational kid."

And he's got friends in high places. While he was resting at home Friday afternoon, the phone rang. It was Trot Nixon, who is on the disabled list with a torn quadriceps. The Red Sox right fielder and his wife, Kathryn, have been Pat White fans for years.

"Trot said he'll be back in September," Pat reported.

During his first bout with cancer, Pat and his dad went to Red Sox spring training in Florida a couple of times. He played catch with Derek Lowe. Pedro Martinez spent time with him, taught him some secret handshakes, and remembered his name a year later. And Nixon never forgot the little boy with the big heart and the bald head.

Pat's hair came back after his initial treatments, but he can feel it falling out again.

Removing his ballcap, he ran his hand across his dark crew cut and said, "It's falling out now. I can see the lines. But so what?"

Cancer or no cancer, 13 years old is 13 years old. This is a tough, scary situation and everybody is mindful, but don't patronize the boy. He's too smart for that.

"I hate it when I make a play on a routine ground ball and a coach is like, `Nice play! Nice play!' " he said. "I'm supposed to make that play. One of my coaches doesn't give me special treatment. He makes fun of me."

Pat's dad, Paul White, is a mailer at the Globe and his mom, Barbara, is a nurse at the New England Medical Center. He has 9-year-old twin sisters, Katie and Meghan. Courtesy of the Jimmy Fund, Pat will have box seats tonight when the new-look Red Sox return home. The entire White family will be at Fenway tomorrow night. They'll always root for the Red Sox, but the wins and losses aren't so tough to take anymore.

"We're not as diehard," said Paul White. "We don't live and die with the Sox as much. We're still great fans, but this puts it in perspective a little bit."

The Quincy Jimmy Fund Tournament runs through Saturday. Donations can be sent to Robert Griffin, 4 Avon Way, Quincy, MA 02169.