He knew something was wrong immediately.
After a teammate expressed concern over extreme inflammation of his neck, Mark Faello looked in the mirror to see for himself.
“My neck was blown up on the right side,” said Faello. “My teammate said it looks like you have two necks,” he added.
Some of the doctors that he visited didn’t have an answer but they did speculate that it could be an infection. After visiting a lymph node specialist, the worst fears were confirmed.
“After doing the biopsy, the doctor confirmed that it was Hodgkins Lymphona–a form of cancer that attacks the lymphatic system which is part of the immune system. There are fewer than 200,000 cases per year and it is most common among early adulthood males.
Faello noted that he was “disappointed but not surprised” due to researching a lot on his own.
Even the most optimistic person can be shook by this diagnosis. Cancer is as evil as it is portrayed to be and chemotherapy is not guaranteed to work. This was the summer after his freshman year of college–which is supposed to be the best time of your life.
Additionally, Faello is a Division-I athlete that had a decorated career at Plainview JFK in which he captured the Diamond Award in 2017 for the best pitcher in Nassau County. He certainly could’ve won again in 2018 but finished runner-up to Brandon Buchan. Keep in mind, Faello was called up as a sophomore and all he did was go 3-1 with a 0.24 ERA over 35.1 IP on a 13-win team. So this is a player with aspirations of playing in professional baseball and a bright future ahead.
After the diagnosis, his career was the obvious question.
“The doctor told me that if you feel up to pitching, you can pitch,” he said.
As you can probably expect, Faello opted to continue pitching. He was selected to play in the Futures League in Connecticut. He was staying with a host family, but shuttled back-and-forth on the ferry in order to start getting his treatments.
Incredibly, he was able to compile a record of 6-1 with a 1.54 ERA in the highly-competitive league. The only thing he was unable to do was pitch on the day of, or day after treatment. He noted that the chemo did make him tired but he was “so locked in that it didn’t really effect me”.
During this process, he was reticent to discuss this with many people.
The only teammate he told at first was Ryan Morash, whom he called one of his best friends. But after a couple weeks, it became obvious and he began to tell more people.
Faello did inform the Hofstra coaching staff; Head Coach John Russo, pitching coach Blake Nation and hitting coach Matt Wessinger.
“They were all great about it–absolutely great. I got a lot of support from them,” he said.
On December 12, Faello received his last treatment–a milestone day for him. “It was a relief because I was able to take the picc line out and was able to sleep easier. It also made working out much easier,” he said.
That’s right, through out the process he continued to get his work in. Never asking for sympathy, Faello kept his head down and grinded in hopes of cracking the weekend rotation for the Pride. One of the side effects of the chemo therapy was weight loss, but he was able to gain 20 lbs to get back up to 170 lbs.
Despite his thin frame, he has been able to get his squat up to 365 lbs and his fastball up to 93 MPH.
“My goal is to be the Friday night guy,” he said. “Now that I’m throwing three pitches for strikes, nobody is going to touch me,” he said.
The Pride open up on Friday, February 14 in Sanford, FL against Purdue. If he can overcome cancer, it’s hard to bet against Faello accomplishing anything he sets his sights on.
