Lester/Cancer Angle

Shaughnessy has a special affinity for the Jon Lester story. Shaughnessy's own daughter is a cancer survivor and so the Lester story seems to particularly pull at his heart strings. It is nice to see Shaughnessy's "sensitive side" as he offers a nice look at Lester's start in front of his hometown in Seattle.

Overall, a pleasant enough story with a few particulars to note

- Shaughnessy once again shows restraint and does not mention that his daughter is a cancer survivor. (He has shown this restraint in his past few columns about Lester) It's refreshing that Shaughnessy does not make the column about himself as he often does

- On the flip side, Lester has repeatedly said that he wants to go on with his life and Shaughnessy seems unwilling to let this angle go. Shaughnessy says Lester has now closed the circle with this start in front of hometown friends. Hyperbole, Dan? Why wasn't the circle closed when he made his first minor league start or when he made his major league return in Cleveland? Yes, it's a great story and all but are we going to get another full circle story when he returns to Fenway? (Reminiscent of his spring obsession with Daisuke M--we had "Dice-K's first" stories for what seemed like a month)

- Minor point...Dan refers to the "immortal Yuniesky Betancourt " and the "maniacal Jose Guillen"...the one-word adjectives are over the top

- Finally, Shaughnessy closes with the whole shtick about Lester always being the "guy who came back from cancer". Perhaps/perhaps not. (Do people still always refer to Mike Lowell as the "guy who came back from cancer?") Again, I agree it is an awesome story but given Lester's desire to move on with it, you would think Shaughnessy would do his best to let him.