February 28, 2023

By Melissa Verge

Canadian Baseball Network

There’s a lot of stairs at Exhibition Stadium, and a nine-year-old Jamie Campbell takes them all running.

The obstacle is nothing for a young boy caught up in the magic of his first Blue Jays game. First pitch is still a while away, adults are likely milling about taking their time getting to their seats, but Campbell is locked in.

No time for hot dogs or cracker jacks.There’s a lot to rush towards the field for.

It’s the summer of ‘77, and the Blue Jays are in town. The players Campbell has known only by his collection of baseball cards are now here, in the flesh. His first glimpse at the sprawling expanse of green grass, brown dirt and blue sky is awe inspiring.

To be anything but right beside it all is too far away. There is only one speed to go to get as close as possible - fast.

In a matter of seconds, he’s standing by the Blue Jays’ visitors dugout. His sprint was well worth it. He’s the only kid in the area, and he’s greeted by Minnesota Twins outfielder Lyman Bostock. The ball player, who spent four seasons in Major League Baseball, is leaning back, perched on a stool, taking in the brilliantly sunny day.

“Hey there, young man,” Bostock says to Campbell. They proceed to have what felt like a five-minute conversation, Campbell said.

That interaction was monumental for him. Forty-six years later he looks back on that moment and that beautiful sunny summer day at the ballpark as where his love for the game began. It’s continued to evolve for the longtime host of Blue Jays Central, who was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in January 2021. The cancer was discovered during a routine physical.

“When you fall hard and you fall instantly there is only room for that love and adoration of the game to grow and grow and grow, and it did,” said Campbell.

It’s been part of the 55-year-old’s life consistently, despite the diagnosis, just as he is part of it. He shows up in living rooms across the country of fans who tune in to watch Blue Jays Central.

It’s a 162-game marathon every year that he gladly runs, just like he ran down to the field as a young boy, entranced by the magic of it all. Sometimes partway through the season he’ll feel drained, but he always gets a second wind. The next thing you know, it's the World Series and the season is over, he said. Then, he’s missing the days he spent at the field until February comes around.

“We walk away from it when it's over, and about a month or two later you're pining for that smell of the grass again,” he said. “Never fails.”

For the past year, his baseball routine has been joined by a less exciting routine - his anti-cancer medication. Every morning he takes the immunotherapy designed to help prevent his cancer from progressing. In five to seven years when the cancer has progressed, he’ll have to switch to a different form of treatment to keep him alive. The long-term hope is that a cure will be found, and he’ll live a good life without much interruption.

He’s off to a good start - Campbell is already feeling much better than he was a year ago. At that point, there were lymph nodes “exploding out of all parts of his body” he said, and he was very tired. Since starting treatment, his symptoms are much more controlled. Although he deals with daily aches and pains, most recently head tension and ringing in the ears, it doesn’t stop him from maintaining a reasonable daily routine.

Those side effects are minor inconveniences that he’s come to terms with.

“The alternative is to not be here at all,” he said. “I guess what I've done is I’ve mentally accepted that I have to live with a few things in order to live, period.”

Between baseball, and driving his kids to school, the 55-year-old has quite the packed daily schedule. He was already down in Florida for Spring Training, and will pack his bags again to fly back with his two sons in a couple of weeks. “I told them, I said ‘mini putt and ice cream every night guys,’” he said. Although he has almost completely eliminated alcohol since the diagnosis and embraced a healthier lifestyle, he too, will partake in the ice cream eating.

“You can't live life so restrictively that you don't enjoy it,” he said.

The host of Jays Central first decided to go public with his diagnosis for two very selfless reasons - so fans wouldn’t worry if his health took a turn and he missed a game. Mainly though, he wanted to help people who may just be receiving a life changing diagnosis know that it’s not a death sentence.

“My thinking was if I can live with this leukemia and I can show up on your television screen every day looking and feeling great, then anybody else who follows the Blue Jays who got a similar diagnosis to mine would then be able to say, ‘Wait a second. I just got notified that I have chronic lymphocytic leukemia. I'm scared, but I see Jamie Campbell living with it and seemingly healthy and doing well, and he’s showing up on my television screen every day so maybe I shouldn't be so afraid.’”

He’s had a lot of support in the past year since going public with his diagnosis, from both players and fans. An overwhelming moment for him was during the All Star Game, when Ken Rosenthal and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. held up signs in the middle of the game with his and Buck Martinez’s name on it.

“I had to take a private moment, run into the bathroom near our studio and broke down quite frankly,” he said. The support has been incredible from people across the country, and he’s grateful for it, he said. He hears it every single day he’s at the ballpark.

From players, to broadcasters, to fans, to future players and broadcasters like a young Campbell was at his first Jays game. They’re all connected by a love for the game of baseball that started at some point in their lives.

“Whether it’s, you know, a first catch with Mom or Dad in the front yard, or their first little league game, or in my case an introduction to Major League Baseball on a brilliant Saturday in May,” Campbell said. “That's the way it happened for me, and it took hold of me at that point and it's been gripping me ever since.”

It’s a pure love, no matter what life throws at him, leukemia and all, Campbell shows up.

On his love for the beautiful game - “it’s never deserted me and it never will.”