Williams: How grieving baseball writer finds camaraderie at Cincinnati Reds spring training

GOODYEAR, Ariz. – The sunshine and baseball here are cathartic. So is the camaraderie.

John Fay needed all of it.

The former long-time Enquirer Reds beat reporter has had a hard winter, losing his beloved wife, Laura, to cancer while fighting his own battle with the disease.

Fayman needed to get out of Cincinnati for a week. He escaped to a place that was his second home for nearly 20 years – the Reds press box.

“It’s been tough,” Fay said. “I’m not sad or depressed, but I miss her.”

Laura Fay kicked breast cancer’s butt for six years until Jan. 4. John Fay, 66, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in September 2022. He had his last chemotherapy treatment on Jan. 25. It’s his second go-around with cancer, having defeated non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the mid-1990s.

Fay is optimistic his record versus cancer has improved to 2-0.

This is the time of year Laura would visit her husband for a week at spring training. John covered the Reds from 2001 until his retirement in 2020. (He was gone briefly after taking an early retirement buyout.)

John Fay:Many Cincinnati Reds moments to remember, but a personal one tops my list

Fay spent nearly 40 years as an Enquirer sportswriter. The baseball beat, with its rigorous travel and night-heavy schedule, can grind a reporter down. John and Laura always found a way to stay in love and remain best friends. They were married 22 years.

“We didn’t have kids, and she worked for herself, so we could make it work,” Fay said. “She liked Florida a lot better than here. She loved the beach.”

John and Laura loved the sunsets at Siesta Key and a cold beverage at the Daiquiri Deck when the Reds trained in Sarasota. But Laura could find joy anywhere – and usually John was right at her side. John chronicled his week back in Arizona on Facebook, sharing memories from spots that Laura loved.

John went hiking at some of their favorite spots. He snapped a photo of himself wearing Laura’s teal stocking hat at her favorite Arizona sunset spot.

John recalled how he wanted to go home in 2020, when spring training shut down early because of the pandemic. He and Laura had planned to visit Joshua Tree National Park in California for a few days before Opening Day. But John figured the trip was off, and he wanted to head home.

“We're going,” Laura insisted, according to her husband’s Facebook post. “What are you going to do in Cincinnati?”

And off they went to Joshua Tree to make memories.

“Laura lived life to the fullest before and after her stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis,” her obit read. “She and John took 24 trips after the diagnosis.”

Tears welled in Fay’s eyes as we talked in the press room Monday morning. He still keeps up with the Reds on his personal blog, fayonthereds.com. He got together for dinner and drinks here with the beat reporters and Reds media relations guys.

“A lot of memories here,” he said. “I’m glad I came out.”

You might be wondering why I chose to write about Fayman on my first day at Reds’ camp. It’s because baseball is about relationships and camaraderie, probably more so than any other sport.

Unlike the NFL’s sterile and controlled environment, you get to know everyone and their stories in baseball. The media access is generous in baseball, which benefits the fans. Six weeks of spring training and 162 games affords you the time to care about others in the game.

John Fay didn’t work for the Reds organization, but he was a big part of the Reds for a long time. He was a big part of baseball in Cincinnati.

I know our readers appreciated John, a native West Sider who's never forgotten where he came from.

Our readers benefitted from Fayman’s institutional knowledge of the Reds. He had sources in every corner of Great American Ball Park. He was an early adopter of Twitter, setting a standard for how local journalists can use the platform to build a brand around their beat and engage the audience. He always took the time to answer even the dumbest questions from fans on Twitter.

I just thought we could take a little time to appreciate him.

Contact columnist Jason Williams by email at jwilliams@enquirer.com and on Twitter @jwilliamscincy.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds spring training helps grieving writer find camaraderie