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  I Was Picked... The John Challis Story

  Copyright © 2015 by Howard Shapiro

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system with out the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotable embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Animal Media Group books may be ordered through booksellers or contacting:

  ANIMAL MEDIA GROUP

  100 First Avenue, Suite 1100, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

  animalmediagroup.com

  412-566-5656

  The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the publisher, and the publisher here disclaims any responsibility for them.

  Book Design by Pilar Brown

  Cover Design by Scott Jones

  Cover Photo by Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Printed in the United States

  FIRST EDITION JUNE 2015

  ISBN 978–0–9912550–0–9

  e-book: ISBN 978–0–9912550–5–4

  CONTENTS

  Howard Shapiro Acknowledgements

  Challis Family Acknowledgements

  Photo Credits

  Foreword

  Introduction

  Part 1: Just an Ordinary Boy: Early Struggles Lead to Strong Family Bonds

  Part 2: Something’s Not Right: John’s Cancer Diagnosis and Early Battle

  Part 3: A Big Heart in a Small Body: John Playing Team Sports

  Part 4: Religion: John’s Faith and Spirituality

  Part 5: Selfless Acts and the Challis Effect

  Part 6: The Fight of his Life: John’s Post-Diagnosis Battle Against Cancer

  Part 7: Family Trips

  Part 8: The Great Outdoors: John’s Love of Hunting and Fishing

  Part 9: The Media: John’s Message Goes Worldwide

  Part 10: Sports: “The Hit”; Pro Teams and Athletes Reach Out to and are Inspired by John

  Part 11: It Won’t be Long: John’s Final Act

  Part 12: A Life Too Short: Thoughts from Scott and Gina Upon John’s Passing

  Part 13: I Get by with a Little Help from My Friends: Memories of John from his Friends

  Part 14: Afterword: Final Thoughts

  HOWARD SHAPIRO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thanks to all of my friends at Animal Inc. and Animal Media Group (especially Michael Killen, Kathy Dziubek and Jim Kreitzburg) you guys made this all possible and for that I will always be grateful and appreciative! Our former interns who helped tremendously with research and transcription: Mark Slabinski, Tyler Rice, Lindsay Lehrman, Dustin Furman, Aurelia Henderson, Colleen Cavolo, Marlee Schneider, Haley Kittel, Lauren Simmons, Ryan McIntyre and extra special thanks to Elana Goldberg for her editorial and creative help. Danielle Hykes, Esq., Anthony Brooks, Esq., Joe Migliozzi, Mario Lemieux, Dr. Clark Gamblin and Kevin Kernan for their great back cover quotes and Joe Maddon for the wonderful Foreword for the book that he wrote.

  Very special thanks to everyone who I interviewed and who were so gracious with their time and memories of John: Bert Pickard, Mike Tibolet, Taylor Dettore, Joe Signore, Joanna Jaworowski, Lena Holewski, Mitchell Meyers, Lisa Nardone, Andy Yeck, Adam Rose and Dan Lentz. Extra special thanks to Steve Wetzel for such a great interview as well as Mike White. It was a great honor Mike, thanks for sharing so much of your time and memories with me.

  Thanks to Pilar Brown for stepping in at the 11th hour and doing a great job on the book design, to Kevin Jones for creating such a great cover and to Christina Frey for her time and help on editing and proofing the book. Thank you to Kevin Finley for his work on the publicity and marketing fronts. I also wanted to single out and say thanks to Christina Ahn Hickey. You are a great friend and collaborator and thank you for all that you have done for me and my writing! A huge shout out to Tom Cochrane for his friendship, inspiration and the kindness extended to me over the years. . . you’re the best, my friend! To my sister Jody Shapiro and my mom Alice Shapiro whose strength and character are second to none. I love you so much.

  Extra special thanks to Gina, Sasha and Nikita, I love you three more than anything in the world.

  Finally, words can’t express my thanks to Scott, Gina and Lexie Challis. You three were kind enough to invite me into your home and share all of your memories of John with me and you gave me the great honor to try and tell John’s story. As I said from the first time I met you, if nothing else, I want you three to be happy with the book. Thanks again for everything!

  For more information please log onto www.animalmedaigroup.com or www.howardshapiro.net. Please send your comments, questions or feedback to [email protected] or [email protected]. Please check out my pages on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/hockeyplayer4life and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Howard-Shapiro/296610707017204?ref=ts Please also look for me on Goodreads and on Twitter (@hockeyplayer)

  For more information or to read more about John Challis, please go the Courage for Life Foundation website at this link:

  http://courageforlifefoundation.org/about-us/john-challis/

  CHALLIS FAMILY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Adam Rose

  Beaver County Times

  Bert Pickard

  Bill Utterback

  Bill Wilhelm

  Bishop David Zubik

  Boston Red Sox’s

  Carol May

  Christina Baird

  Christine Simpson

  Cleveland Indians

  Conway Borough Council

  Conway Police Department.

  Dan Arruda

  Dan O’Leary

  Dan Prunzik

  Davis DiDomenico

  Detroit Tigers

  Dr. Anthony Graves

  Dr. Clark Gamblin

  ESPN

  Father Ward

  Freedom Borough Council

  Freedom Little Bulldogs

  Freedom Police Department.

  Freedom School District

  Freedom School District Booster Organizations

  Fuji Network

  George Sullivan

  Hunt of A Lifetime Foundation

  Jason Zillo

  Jay Kerschner

  JC Summers

  Jessica McNear

  Joan Pail

  Joe Maddon

  Joe Signore

  Karen Bozza Roman

  KDKA TV Radio

  Kelly Junkerman

  Kimberly Jones

  Larissa Theodore

  Linda Keener

  Lisa Land

  Liver Cancer Center Montefiore Hospital Pittsburgh

  Make A Wish

  Mark Stempler

  Michele Rosenthal

  Michelle Mejia

  Mike White

  MLB Network

  New Sewickley Twp. Police Department.

  New Sewickley Twp. Supervisors

  New York Yankees

  Noll Funeral Home

  Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital Oncology Unit

  Omar Khan

  Patty Paytas

  Patty Tiberio (Gram)

  Patty, Tim, Tyler and TJ Heltch

  Pittsburgh Penguins

  Pittsburgh Pirates

  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

  Pittsburgh Steelers

  Pittsburgh Tribune - Review

  Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church

  Scott Jones

  Sean Casey

  Steve Wetzel

  Tampa Bay Rays

  Tom Challis (Grandad)

  Tom McMillian

  Tom Rinaldi ESPN

  Tony Rich

  Trudy Scarborough

  War Dogs


  William Allmann

  WPXI TV

  WTAE TV

  A special thank you to Joanna Jaworowski for being the best aunt a parent could ever wish for their kids. For the love and support and never giving up hope.

  To Howard Shapiro and the Animal Media Group for believing in our sons story.

  For more information or to read more about John you can go to the web at. . . http://courageforlifefoundation.org/about-us/john-challis/

  PHOTO CREDITS

  PHOTOGRAPH

  DATE

  PHOTO BY

  Left (1)

  December 1993

  Scott Challis

  Right (2)

  Fall 1993

  Scott Challis

  Bottom Right (3)

  Summer 1996

  Scott Challis

  Left (4)

  October 19, 2007

  Hunt of a Lifetime Foundation

  Right (5)

  May 2008

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Left (6)

  September 2007

  Graule Studios

  Top Left (9)

  September 2007

  Scott Challis

  Top Right (7)

  July 2007

  Scott Challis

  Bottom (8)

  November 2007

  Unknown

  Left (10)

  April 11, 2008

  Dan O’Leary

  Top Right (11)

  April 12, 2008

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Bottom Right (12)

  May 2007

  Scott Challis

  Left (13)

  April 2008

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Top Right (14)

  November 2007

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Bottom Right (15)

  December 2007

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Top (16)

  October 28, 2006

  Scott Challis

  Bottom (17-A)

  February 2008

  Unknown

  Top (17)

  May 2008

  Scott Challis

  Bottom (18)

  December 2007

  Jody Jaworowski

  Top (19)

  May 2008

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Bottom Left (20)

  June 5, 2008

  Unknown

  Bottom Right (22-A)

  June 5, 2008

  Unknown

  Top (21)

  June 5, 2008

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Bottom (22)

  June 5, 2008

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Top (23)

  July 2007

  Scott Challis

  Top (24)

  March 2008

  Christina Baird/Beaver County Times

  Bottom (25)

  May 2008

  Scott Challis

  Top (26)

  June 25, 2008

  Pittsburgh Pirates

  Bottom (28)

  June 28, 2008

  Pittsburgh Pirates

  Top (27)

  June 25, 2008

  Pittsburgh Pirates

  Bottom (29)

  July 2, 2008

  New York Yankees

  Top (30)

  June 2008

  Scott Challis

  Top (32)

  August 2, 2008

  Scott Challis

  Bottom (31)

  June 2008

  Scott Challis

  Top (37)

  December 16, 2010

  Scott Challis

  Bottom (33)

  Spring 2009

  Scott Challis

  Top (34)

  June 2010

  Scott Challis

  Inset (34-B)

  June 2010

  USPS

  Left (34-A)

  August 19, 2009

  Scott Challis

  Top Left (35)

  March 2009

  Scott Challis

  Bottom left (36)

  2010

  Unknown

  FOREWORD

  C + B = L

  Those three letters are on the top of every lineup card I make out as manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s been that way since June 28, 2008. That was the day I met John Challis.

  The week before, we were in South Florida to play the Marlins, and I was in my hotel room killing time and watching ESPN when a story came on about a young western Pennsylvania athlete dying of cancer. For a lot of reasons, the story hit close to home. While the tumor in his liver had reduced John to little more than a skeleton and snuffed out a varsity career before it began, he held tight to a dream: to get just one at bat for his Freedom High School team [and] to face a fastball one last time in his life, no matter how much pain it might bring.

  The single still photograph of that moment captured it all perfectly, freezing the ball leaving John’s bat as it headed into right field for a clean single. It was witnessed by only a handful of people on a gray April day on a field with more dirt than grass, against a backdrop of trees not yet recovered from a cold Pennsylvania winter. That stark and colorless scene presented a powerful image, and for me, an eerily familiar one. I spent many days on fields just like it while growing up on the other side of the state. The magnitude of the moment, a young man achieving success in his first and only chance, under impossible circumstances, was overwhelming to me. That photo will stay with me forever.

  I knew I needed to meet this remarkable young hero. As fortune would have it, our next stop was an interleague series in Pittsburgh, about twenty minutes from the Challis home.

  We met in the first base dugout at PNC Park, and I was immediately impressed by his presence and how he conducted himself, knowing what was going on inside him.

  As we spoke, John slipped and called us the Devil Rays. Our franchise had just changed its name from Devil Rays to Rays, and to help enforce the name change we imposed a dollar fine on anyone who referred to us by our former name.

  I immediately told him that he owed me a buck. He didn’t think it was fair and didn’t want to pay it. But I insisted. “You’re no different than anyone else,” I gently scolded him.

  He eventually produced a bill, and I asked him to sign it. He did and then scrawled something else of his own making, his formula for living:

  Courage + Believe = Life.

  He nailed it with that thought, totally nailed it. The way any of us wish we could. I was completely in awe of this kid who was forced to mature so rapidly in the face of this terrible disease. He processed it the way I would think a grown man would have.

  A little less than two months later, John died. I still have the bill he signed and a ball. His uniform is framed in my office. And the red wristband I never remove is for the John Challis Courage for Life Foundation.

  The three letters at the top of my lineup card are also permanent. When things go too fast, or I get upset about something during the game, that message brings it back for me. Nothing gives me proper perspective than those three letters. Thank you, John. I will always be grateful.

  Joe Maddon, March 2014

  INTRODUCTION

  I WAS PICKED... THE JOHN CHALLIS STORY

  By Howard Shapiro with the Challis Family

  During the spring and early summer of 2008 I was writing my first graphic novel, The Stereotypical Freaks, but I was in the midst of a bad case of writer’s block. I knew what I wanted the story to say, but I was missing a character, one who would be the center of the story’s universe. I read a front-page article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Mike White about an amazing teen who had terminal cancer but wanted to play baseball one more time, and who got a solid hit on the first pitch. It read like something out of a Disney movie, but it really happened—and sadly, John was dying.

  But he came across unlike
any teen or even any adult in that situation would. He spoke of not sweating the small stuff, of living every day to its fullest, and of living in the moment. While I was reading about John, a light bulb went off in my head. I was inspired and wanted to create a character who had John’s immense wisdom and his beyond-his-years sensibility. The Jacoby character was born, and I was able to finish writing the book a few months later.

  The Courage for Life Foundation (CFL) was started right before John’s death, and each year I do a charity raffle at my book signings and donate the money raised to hockey and/or sports-related causes. The CFL is one of the charities I donate to each year. After The Stereotypical Freaks came out in 2011, I sent the Foundation a copy of the book and told them that the Jacoby character was inspired by John. I ended up emailing John’s dad, Scott Challis, and had the honor of meeting him at a book signing in September 2012. He told me that over the last several years he had been trying to have a book published about John and his story. Truthfully, I was surprised one had not come out, and I told him so. A few weeks later Scott called me and asked me if I would be interested in writing John’s story. I was floored, and accepted with great honor and a desire to tell John’s story and keep his message and memory alive.

  Questions swirled around my head after I hung up the phone with Scott. John’s courage was remarkable, but where did that ability, the ability to move, inspire, and enlighten young and old, come from? Was it something John was born with? How could someone so young, someone who was beginning his life, develop the wisdom and strength that most people twice or three times his age did not have or would not even be able to muster if put in a similar situation?

  PART 1

  JUST AN ORDINARY BOY: EARLY STRUGGLES LEAD TO STRONG FAMILY BONDS

  Things were not right from the start.

  John Scott Challis Jr. was born on December 16, 1989. He was Scott and Gina’s first child and would be their only son. At birth he weighed five pounds, nine ounces and measured eighteen and a half inches. Everything seemed normal until two days later, when the newborn, who had yet to have a bowel movement, quit eating. John was rushed by helicopter thirty-five miles from the Medical Center of Beaver County to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He was baptized and given his last rites.