- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Dodgers’ Cash reaching families through baseball
- Updated: November 23, 2016
GLENDALE, Ariz. — It hardly seemed to matter that Lisa Riley and Ralston Cash had never met as they shared an emotional, tearful embrace outside ONEOK Field, the home of the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate, in Tulsa, Okla. All that mattered was the connection they shared — cancer. Riley as someone battling the disease, Cash, doing his best to ease the process for families.
“We were like kindred spirits,” Riley said. “He saw me and we made eye contact. There were tons of people around, waiting for his autograph and I just wanted to talk to him … we just started talking and we hit it off.”
The 25-year-old Dodgers’ farmhand has experienced significant loss and devastation throughout his life. Because of those experiences, he started the Ralston Cash Foundation, a non-profit organization that buys Christmas presents for children who have lost a parent to cancer.
One shirt = One toy. Help me raise money for kids who have lost a parent to cancer and you’ll get a sweet tee. Link is in my bio! #ralstoncashfoundation
A photo posted by Ralston Cash (@therealmustachecash) on May 1, 2016 at 10:18am PDT
Riley, who is now cancer-free, had breast cancer at the time and was particularly moved by Cash’s mission as she saw the impact her cancer had on her family and then 4-year-old son.
“People don’t think about the kids that it affects,” Riley said. “Thank God I’m cancer-free and I’m healthy and younger and survived the storm, but at the same time, there’s so many kids that lose their parents. I know how much it affected my kid, and I’m OK.”
The two became so close that Cash lived with the Rileys from April to July, until he got called up to Triple-A Oklahoma. Riley’s son even calls the pitcher his big brother.
When Cash was 3 years old, his mother passed away in a car wreck. He was then raised by his grandparents, Ralph and Sue Cash, but Ralph lost his battle with bladder cancer on Jan. 18, 2012. Cash’s nephew was born 10 months later, only to pass away two weeks later. The next year, Cash learned his best friend had been diagnosed with leukemia.
The constant devastation weighed on Cash. However, after dwelling on it, Cash had enough.
“Life is 90 percent how you react to the 10 percent that happens, and I decided that I wanted to stop sulking,” Cash said. “I wanted to do something about it. I got tired of going through so much and not putting something back into the world after so much was taken out.”
So he decided to give back.
#ralstoncashfoundation went out of our mission and decided to …
