New York Times article

February 7, 2001

ON BASEBALL

By JACK CURRY

Jorge Posada ambled into the Yankee clubhouse every day last summer, a place that some players have described as a sanctuary. Leave your problems at home. Come here, play baseball, do what you do best and, for a few hours, troubles disappear. But there were no sanctuaries for Posada last season. How do you find a moment of solitude when your son has a brain ailment that is seven syllables long?

Posada kept going to work, essentially keeping the distressing news to himself. Even after he initially heard the diagnosis that his son had craniosynostosis. Even after he found out that Jorge IV would have to undergo serious surgery. Even after the delicate surgery last August on the then 8-month-old. Posada stayed silent and kept playing, a piece of him always focused on little Jorge.

In some ways, Posada is not different from the postal worker or the truck driver whose kid has the condition, which occurs when the bones in the baby's skull fuse together before the brain has stopped growing. But, in many ways, Posada is different from the average 29- year-old father.

Thousands of people watch him work and grade him with their lungs. Dozens of reporters critique every throw he makes and every swing he takes. When you reach the major leagues, being resilient is an essential part of the equation. Sometimes, you have to play baseball while wondering if your son is going to respond favorably to brain surgery. Posada did.

"They opened his head up," Posada said. "They made a big incision from ear to ear. They moved the bones around in the skull and put them back properly. A lot of stuff goes through your mind about what might go wrong with him. Bad stuff. It was tough."

Last Aug. 1, the day before Jorge IV was scheduled to have surgery, Posada and his wife, Laura, sat in their apartment in Manhattan and wept. Posada did not play against Kansas City the next night, but only Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez, Orlando Hernández, Joe Torre and Brian Cashman knew Jorge's surgery had taken place. Posada kept it from most of his teammates. Most of them figured it out that night because Posada, his emotions swirling like a typhoon, looked like a zombie.

"We wanted to wait until he was perfect until we said anything," Posada said. "Now he's perfect."

Still, before Posada was honored for his charitable work at the 21st annual Thurman Munson Awards Dinner at the Marriott Marquis in Midtown Manhattan last night, he and his wife were at the hospital because Jorge had a minor corrective procedure done on his left eye. Jorge IV, who was home babbling by the afternoon, is 14 months old now and the doctors have assured the Posadas that the reconstructive surgery was successful.

"He's so young that I'm hoping he never even remembers any of this," Posada said.

Posada waited until after the season to reveal publicly that Jorge had craniosynostosis, which can happen before birth or in the first few months of a baby's life.

If it is not successfully treated, craniosynostosis can cause deformities of the skull and the face and can cause the underdevelopment of the brain. After Posada's son was stricken with the condition, which strikes between three to five of every 1,000 babies, he and his wife began the Posada Foundation to support families whose children have craniosynostosis.

"We went through a lot last year," Posada said. "We wanted to keep it quiet so I wouldn't have to answer questions every day. We didn't know what was going to happen."

Posada had anxiously waited for the 2000 season, when he would finally be the Yankees' starting catcher. There were no doubts and no Joe Girardis. It was his job. He had an All-Star season, but, for a chunk of the special season, Posada had to wonder if the boy who calls him "Papa" would be fine.

Posada hit .287 with 28 homers and 86 runs batted in, solid numbers for any catcher, and especially solid numbers for a father who spent many hours praying that his son would make it through the surgery and go back to being a bubbly little boy again.

"He's so small and so helpless that you just hope everything will turn out all right," Posada said. "For us, it has. He's a tough little kid. He's already very tough, and he's already got a temper."

The baseball season is so draining and so grueling. It starts in the middle of February and it can extend until almost Halloween, especially for these Yankees. It is difficult to deal with personal issues as the season is evolving. Sickness and tragedy occur and players have to adjust. That Posada had his finest season during a precarious time with his son does not make him different from us. It makes his special season even more memorable. It makes him just like us.