CINCINNATI — A summer that would leave him, like others, alone for long stretches, isolated a few times and only a mattress to play catch with, began when Jack Flaherty left his home near Los Angeles in July to enter the Cardinals’ bubble. That is where he was, sealed in by protocols to pull off the season, when his mother was diagnosed with endometrial cancer.
The hug he had for her would have to wait, not hours or weeks, but months.
“Obviously, the hardest part was just being away from her, not really being able to be there and be around for all of it,” Flaherty said.