PITTSBURGH -- Riley Wheaton is a baseball player, regardless of the health challenges life has presented him. Even when the 9-year-old was in the hospital with tubes in his chest, he was still swinging away with a toy bat and ball.
On Tuesday, Riley got to hang out with one of baseball’s best pitchers in one of baseball’s best stadiums. Now in remission after several very challenging months, the Pirates, Paul Skenes and the Make-A-Wish Foundation teamed up to give him a day to remember.
“Paul Skenes is a really fast pitcher, and he’s my favorite player,” Riley said. “He was really nice.”
In October 2024, Riley was life-flighted to Boston Children’s Hospital after being found in complete heart failure. He was diagnosed with myocarditis and needed five chest tubes in four months to remove fluid from around his heart and lungs. In January, a biopsy from his pericardium came back positive for angiosarcoma, which oncologists described as rare, aggressive and terminal.
After six rounds of chemotherapy, imaging revealed that Riley was in remission. His heart function is currently back to normal, too, allowing him to return to the baseball diamond. A few weeks after his last round of chemo, he toed the rubber again for his 10-and-under travel team and struck out 10 over four scoreless innings.
After a performance like that, who better to meet than Skenes, one of the Major League game’s great strikeout artists.
The two had a full day pregame Tuesday. Skenes took the family around the ballpark and through the home clubhouse and introduced him to his teammates. They made a trip to the bullpen, where Riley got to throw to the former college catcher and have his pitches tracked with the team’s technology.
