Mariners 2023 Make A Wish baserunner practices at T-Mobile Park

Photos by Mat Bermudez

On Monday, the Seattle Mariners welcomed their 2023 Make-A-Wish Opening Day baserunner Coleman to T-Mobile Park to practice his run and hang out on the field.

In 2019, just after his 2nd birthday, Coleman was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer that if caught ‘too late,’ leads to removal of the eye(s). As it often happens with the disease, his parents noticed the tumors before doctors when his Mother started seeing white flashes in his right eye. Turns out, flash photography is an early diagnosis tool for Retinoblastoma.

The tumors in Coleman’s right eye were caught just on the edge of ‘too late.’ His treatment journey to save his eye and as much vision as possible has been a 3-year battle involving 3 types of chemotherapy in addition to laser therapy, cryotherapy, and radiation plaque therapy. But, in summer of 2022, he reached remission a third time.

On Thursday, Coleman will help kick off the 2023 Mariners season with his run around the bases