Mariners' pitcher Miguel Batista treats young fan to a special day at the park

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — An afternoon in the batting cage with Mariners pitcher Miguel Batista was something Pat Pedraja had eagerly awaited for weeks.

The 12-year-old baseball and hockey fanatic, who lives in the Tampa Bay area, needs things to look forward to. It's how he takes his mind off the grueling chemotherapy sessions he undergoes for the leukemia he was diagnosed with two years ago.

Sometimes, it's chemo and then a promised movie. Or, like last Monday, as the poison filled his veins, it was his Wednesday afternoon baseball date with Batista that kept Pedraja's spirits high.

"It helps me stay positive," he said.

When he isn't getting treated for his cancer, Pedraja is busy planning cross-country campaigns to raise awareness about the need for more bone marrow donors to help leukemia sufferers. It began last year, when he traveled with his family around the country in an RV, helping to sign up 6,000 additional donors to the national registry. His work earned Pedraja the CNN Heroes Viewers' Choice Award last year and enough attention that he's planning an international leg to his Driving for Donors campaign in Australia this summer.

Not the kind of stuff usually associated with seventh graders. But Pedraja has already seen 10 other cancer patients he knew die because of bone marrow donor shortages.

"It's too many," he said. "There are too many people dying because they can't get a donor."

Pedraja, whose father is Cuban, is especially sensitive to the fact there are markedly fewer donors for minorities.

"That's why I focused on signing minorities up last summer," he said.

Pedraja and Batista met recently in Los Angeles while both were guests on a local Spanish-language television talk show.

"There were three guests and he was the third to come on," Batista said. "He was just so interesting to listen to talk and to hear about what he was trying to do. I talked to him about it afterwards and told him we should meet again when we came to play here."

Batista took Pedraja into the visiting clubhouse, where he met most of the Mariners and talked to them about his campaign. He went on to the field with Batista and took some ground balls, then into an indoor batting cage, where they worked on his swing.

"Just hold it this way," Batista told Pedraja after some initial swing attempts, prodding him to lift his elbow more. "This should help you do better."

Later, Batista introduced him on the field to buddy Carlos Peña of the Tampa Bay Rays. Peña took Pedraja inside the Rays' clubhouse where he repeated his donors' pitch all over again.

Information about Pedraja's program is available at www.drivingfordonors.com.

"They've all been great," said Pedraja, too weak from his chemotherapy to play organized sports like he used to. "It's just been awesome getting to do something like this."

Pedraja's mother, Claudine Andrews, said her son came up with the idea of a donor drive after seeing a woman, Greek Gray, who ran a foundation to help fight leukemia, interviewed on television. The cross-country bone marrow drive began soon after, with Andrews often driving the RV. Their initial goal was to sign up 2007 new donors in the 2007 calendar year. When they more than doubled that and the CNN award was announced, the letters, interview requests and e-mails poured in from around the word.

"He really discovered he has this gift to inspire people," she said.

Andrews said her son's treatment has gone well and that his cancer is expected to go into full remission, where he wouldn't need a bone marrow donor. Pedraja has run the gamut of emotions since his March 2006 diagnosis after being treated for long-term swelling in his joints that was first thought to be juvenile arthritis.

"I was shocked," he said of the cancer diagnosis. "It didn't really hit me until the next day. You're just scared. You don't know what to do."

In many ways, his cross-country work has helped take his mind off some of those fears. The way looking forward to an afternoon with Batista helps him get through a chemo session.

"It can be tough, but I try to stay positive," he said. "I love doing this. It's like my job. My duty as someone who could need a donor someday. We've gotten so many e-mails from a lot of kids and people who want to do drives in their countries. I'm going to do everything I can to help them."