In celebration of Mother’s Day, every year each MLB team chooses one female nominee to represent their organization for the fight against breast cancer. Honored by the Angel’s team this year, is Cypress High School’s own Human Anatomy and Chemistry teacher, Mrs. Susan Fried.

“I was chosen when a former student of mine, Mandi Ortiz, who works for the Angels as their Marketing & Entertainment Coordinator, filled out a request from the Angels to nominate people they know that are currently battling breast cancer. Since I am friends with Mandi on Facebook, she knew I was battling and thought of me to nominate.” 

When she arrived at Angel Stadium, Mrs. Fried says she was greeted by her former student, Mandi, and a camera crew which filmed her and her family entering. “When I got to my seat, Angels pitcher Chris Rodriguez came out to talk to me and made sure I had everything I needed. After I spoke with him, Mandi and the Angels presented me with a David Fletcher signed jersey. The Angels took some pictures of me and my family. Just a few minutes later, David Fletcher came out to say hello to me as well,” Fletcher had also previously been her student at Cypress. After taking a few more pictures and making some visits, she had also gotten to speak to the manager of the Angels, Joe Maddon. 

“After that, the Angels crew filmed me and the PA announcer told the whole stadium who I was and why I was there and a bit of my story. After they had stopped filming, I had about 10 women who were survivors come up and say hello and give me some advice and support on how to stay positive. It was so cool and I felt so honored that these women would take time out of their day to say hello.” Mrs. Fried describes this experience meeting these women and hearing their stories as well as telling hers, as very special.

In another interview filmed two weeks before Mother’s Day, Mrs. Fried was pleasantly surprised with meeting new Angels pitcher, Chris Rodriguez. “I really enjoyed meeting him and hearing his story as being a high school aged kid when he learned that both of his parents got cancer. Since I have two high school-aged kids, I really connected with him and appreciated him telling his story.” Just one week later, she was surprised again with a Zoom meeting, this time including both of her past students, David Fletcher and Mandi Ortiz. “It was so great to chat to both of them on our own, while being filmed of course. It was nice to catch up with both.”

We as students of Cypress wish all the best for Mrs. Fried. We are so proud of her strength during this time, and are very happy to see her be honored by the Angels team. The video of her in-game interview will be linked down below.

https://www.mlb.com/video/the-angels-honorary-bat-girl