Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb's life changed by friend's death

Scott Bordow | The Republic | azcentral.com

Jake Lamb bent over, took his glove off and scratched the initials “JD” in the dirt behind the third-base bag, just short of the outfield grass.

It’s a ritual Lamb performs every game, a tribute to a friend who died of cancer and whose death changed Lamb’s life.

“That’s the selfish side of where he comes into my story,” Lamb said.

JD stands for Josh Dickerson. Like Lamb, he grew up in the Seattle area. Dickerson was a baseball player, too. An infielder. He loved to talk trash and have fun, no matter if he went 4 for 4 or 0 for 4.

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They met, Lamb and Dickerson, through Lamb’s sister, Megan. The circumstances were unfortunate, to say the least. Megan and Dickerson met at a cancer-support group as they battled the disease.

Megan fought the cancer, became a standout high school softball player and went to Washington State University.

But Jake and Josh became close. Dickerson started visiting the Lamb home and soon he and Jake were more like brothers than friends.

When Lamb was a senior at Bishop Blanchet High, Dickerson was a freshman at O’Dea High. The schools were rivals and that year O’Dea won the state title.

“He wouldn’t stop talking trash to me about that,” Lamb said.

It didn’t matter that Dickerson had been diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer found in the soft tissue of his wisdom teeth, in 2009. Eleven months of chemotherapy had followed but nothing could dim Dickerson’s spirit. If he had a chance to make fun of Lamb, he would.

“He was happy all the time, no matter what he was going through,” Lamb said.

In 2011, Lamb was a sophomore at the University of Washington. That’s when he got the news. The cancer had returned.

Dickerson died in July 2012.

Lamb was heartbroken. But he also knew he would be dishonoring his friend’s memory if he didn’t change who he was. It’s hard to imagine now, but Lamb was a hothead in college. He let bad games eat at him, the anger and frustration harming his personal relationships.

One night during his junior year, when he was anxious about where he would be taken in the June amateur draft, he started yelling at his father.

“I was just in a bad place,” Lamb said. “I took the game way too serious. If I had a bad game I’d take it out on the people around me. I wasn’t fun to be around.”

Dickerson’s death changed all that. Almost immediately Lamb’s attitude began to improve. These days, he’s the same even-keeled personality day in and day out. The ups and downs of a 162-game season rarely, if ever, affect him.

“I use him to kind of remember this is just a game, this is a sport,” Lamb said. “We do this for fun. There’s so many times where we get caught up in the business side, in the numbers, the media. You’re supposed to go out and have fun playing a game we started playing as kids. Now it’s like if I have a bad game it’s just a bad game. If it’s a really bad game or I do something really bad I kind of hang out in my locker for a few minutes and get over it. Yeah, it sucks at the time but it’s just a game. You can’t really take it too serious.”

If Lamb ever needs a reminder of how he’s supposed to act, he can look at the “JD2” – Dickerson wore uniform No. 2 – he has stitched in yellow on his glove. Or, the silicon band he wears on his wrist with the same abbreviation and the words “Courage + Belief = Life.”

“It lets me know that you do this for the love of the game,” Lamb said. “That’s what Josh was always doing. Unfortunately it took that type of experience but it changed my life forever.”

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Tuesday’s game

When: 4:10 p.m.

Where: Comerica Park, Detroit.

Pitchers: Diamondbacks RHP Zack Greinke (8-3, 3.20) vs. Tigers RHP Buck Farmer (2-0, 0.00).

TV/Radio: FSAZ/KMVP-FM (98.7), KHOV-FM (105.1)

Greinke is coming off an outing in which he gave up three earned runs in five innings against San Diego. It tied for his shortest outing of the season. He has won seven of his last eight starts and historically has had success against Detroit, with a 13-7 record and a 2.79 ERA. … Farmer is making his third start of the season and has a 13-inning scoreless streak, tied for the longest in the American League. He’s struck out 16 batters in his two previous starts.

Coming up

Wednesday: At Detroit, 4:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Taijuan Walker (4-3, 3.46) vs. Tigers RHP Michael Fulmer (6-4, 3.40).

Thursday: Off

Friday: At Philadelphia, 4:05 p.m., Diamondbacks TBD vs. Phillies RHP Aaron Nola (3-4, 4.40).

Up next

Detroit Tigers

Tigers update: The Tigers are 30-32 and 3 ½ games behind the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central. Detroit’s pitching has been a disaster; its team ERA of 4.74 ranks 14th in the AL and its opponents’ batting average is .271. The bullpen has been a real sticking point with an ERA of 5.14. Detroit still has a capable offense with Miguel Cabrera, J.D. Martinez and Justin Upton but the team is getting told and there’s a lot of talk that the Tigers might be big sellers before the July 31 trading deadline.