21-05-2025
Dodgers' Evan Phillips gets ‘full circle' moment with emotional return to children's hospital
LOS ANGELES — The scene was enough to inspire flashbacks for Evan Phillips. The winding, maze-like hallways. The same color of paint on the walls. The memories flooded back as Phillips and his wife, Liz, walked back into the Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's Hospital. The last time they were here, the Los Angeles Dodgers reliever was coming to take his son, Beau, home after a 15-day stay when he was born seven weeks premature.
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Now, with Beau healthy, the parents returned to visit and bring books, baseball cards and raise funds for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It was just past two years to the day that they were able to take Beau home on May 5, 2023. As they walked through the halls, Liz squeezed her husband's hand.
'Heart's beating fast,' she said.
Nerves turned into tears, and then smiles. As the couple toured the facilities Monday morning, they reminisced while talking to parents whose kids were in the unit. Because they knew this place so well, they knew exactly what to bring. Liz recalled picking up a book at check-in to read to Beau when he was first admitted into the unit. The book, 'I Am So Brave,' remains in their collection to this day.
'It kind of normalized him as a kid, right?' Liz said of the ritual that came out of the book. 'He was a baby. You can still read him books. And he is so brave.'
'That kind of routine,' Evan said, 'I think we really built a strong connection that was kind of formed here.'
So the couple brought books of their own to gift to the families they met. For Evan, it was the first book he read aloud each night to Beau, 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?' From Liz, it was her preferred book to read to her son, 'You're My Little Sunshine.'
Memories awaited them at every turn. First, in walking the halls. Then they passed by the exact bed where Beau spent his two weeks. As the two posed for a photo by bed No. 6, Liz took a deep breath.
'That made the butterflies flutter,' she said.
The parents reunited with hospital personnel, from security guards to the nurses who helped take care of their son.
'Being in the NICU, it's not talked about a lot – parents are going through all the traumatic experience they're having here, too,' said Su Ntwe, an NICU nurse who was part of the staff taking care of Beau. 'So I think it's good to let them know that, if Evan went through this, then anyone can go through this too, and it's really common. Their babies will turn out OK and be cared for here.'
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When they hugged, their eyes were red with emotion.
'They're happy tears,' Ntwe said.
This was a chance for the Phillips family to pay things forward and hear stories like theirs. Daniel Salazar first entered the unit weighing 1 pound, 11 ounces and is in his fifth month in the NICU after being born at 23 weeks. His father, Daniel, recalled Phillips' story and has thought of it when showing Dodgers games on his phone with his now nearly 14-pound son. The baby sported a Dodgers onesie and cap, along with Dodgers-branded sneakers that Phillips made sure to sign.
'It's a lot,' Salazar said of Phillips. 'To see him do that and to see his son grow and watch ours be here and hopefully one day ours will be growing just as much as his and doing stuff like him. It's great.'
As part of their visit to the adjoining children's hospital, Evan and Liz met with 10-year-old Pablo Escobar, a diehard Dodgers fan who has undergone two kidney transplants after a diagnosis with Burkitt lymphoma, an aggressive form of cancer. Escobar's room was littered with Dodgers cups, shoes and hats as the Dodgers right-hander sat down and opened baseball cards with him. When Beau was discharged from the hospital, Phillips started collecting baseball cards and memorabilia to share with him one day. Now, he wanted to do it with a kid in a similar position. They shared amazement when they managed to open Topps cards for both Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. and his brother, Mets infielder Luisangel Acuña.
'Books and baseball cards,' Evan said. 'It's really simple, but to just have that kind of access and shed some light on our experience was important to us.'
The visit also represented a chance at closure.
Beau Phillips watched his first baseball game from this very same NICU, with Ntwe by Liz's side as they streamed the game. It was Phillips' first outing since becoming a father, pitching on the road in Pittsburgh as he tried to remain in touch with Liz on their newborn son's progress. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts intentionally pitched Phillips in the sixth inning to keep him out of a high-leverage spot – Phillips delivered a scoreless, 10-pitch inning. That night, Evan and Liz wept on the phone.
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'It was just a lot,' Liz said.
The two settled into a routine at home for two weeks once Phillips returned from the road trip. They'd get up and spend hours at Cedars-Sinai by Beau's side before Phillips made the 9-mile drive directly to Dodger Stadium to continue a breakout season where he'd lead the team with 24 saves. Whenever the doctors would check in on Beau's progress, Phillips joined via FaceTime.
'You're so focused on your child and what's going on that you lose track of time,' Evan said of those days. 'You lose track of your sleep.'
When Beau was set to go home, Phillips hung back. The Dodgers were set to begin a three-game set at Petco Park against the San Diego Padres, but Phillips stayed in Los Angeles to help bring his son home. The moment was memorable, if fleeting, as Phillips took a car service an hour later to join the team in San Diego.
'It was the longest drive to San Diego I've ever had,' Evan said.
The Phillips family chose to make their story public and speak openly about Beau's journey. They were surprised by the reception. A Dodgers season-ticket holder gifted them a blanket that remains in Beau's room. A fan gave Phillips a book to read to his son. Another fan greeted Liz with a Mother's Day card in the weeks after Beau came home for the first time. Other parents reached out over social media and flooded them with messages of support and encouragement.
'Baseball does this thing where you feel connected to a community in a way that you can't really put into words,' Liz said. 'That was one of those times. … I'd never met these people and they didn't owe me anything, but it felt special because baseball's a job and it's a sport and you didn't have to think about it like that. In that moment, it was some kind of family that I didn't know was out there, but it is out there.'
So they've decided to pay it forward. That started Monday, and will continue through the couple's fundraising efforts to help support the hospital and the NICU unit, in particular. It's a 'full-circle' moment, Evan said, particularly with a happy and healthy Beau at home.
A post shared by Evan Phillips (@evan_phillips33)
Beau is 2 years old and has hit every checkpoint put in front of him. Glimpses of his personality are coming through. He has a toy trash truck that never leaves his side, even when he's sleeping. He went from cautiously walking to running overnight. The Phillips family is watching their son grow.
He's taken to baseball, too. He often has a toy baseball bat on his shoulder. Watching a game on TV this weekend, he was quick to yell out, 'Safe!' when a runner slid into a base.
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'Apple doesn't fall far from the tree,' Liz said. 'He's a carbon copy of Evan.'
This is a chapter of their story they're fully embracing.
'(You) see the end of the story almost,' Phillips said. 'To know that you made it through that phase. That was subtly the message we tried to share with parents, that there is some light at the end of the tunnel and you just keep making progress. Getting the gauge of the parents and how they're feeling, and you can see the weight of it on everybody. But to know that ultimately this is the best place for them to be gave us a lot of peace. Just reminding parents of that fact, it's really the best you can do.'
(Top photo of Evan and Liz with Daniel Salazar, who entered the unit weighing 1 pound, 11 ounces: All photos by Fabian Ardaya / The Athletic)
