Hall of Famer will be on hand for White Sox home opener Tuesday
CHICAGO -- Harold Baines has been part of more than 30 home openers as a Hall of Fame player, coach and ambassador for the White Sox organization.
When he arrives with his wife, Marla, at Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday morning for the 2022 home opener in Chicago, something will feel different. Baines, now 63, will arrive almost 11 months removed from a life-saving heart and kidney transplant surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

Surviving and recovering from the surgery has provided Baines, a Maryland native, a new lease on life. But as he told MLB.com Thursday evening, the goal for Baines on that night simply was getting to Friday.
āJust focus on Tuesday when Tuesday comes,ā Baines said. āIām excited to get back after two years and not being there. Today, I just take it one day at a time.ā
āItās a second chance,ā said Marla, who has been married to Harold for 37 years. The couple has four children and six grandchildren. āWe would have taken an extra year or two. Heās back now almost like it never happened.ā
As a player for 22 Major League seasons, Baines was as beloved as he was revered. The consummate professional finished with 384 home runs, 1,628 RBIs and 2,866 hits over 11,092 plate appearances. He was an outstanding defensive presence in right field early in his career with the White Sox, before becoming one of the gameās premier designated hitters.
Those two decades of baseball produced 10 knee surgeries and, ultimately, a right knee replacement, but nothing like what he endured almost a year ago. Baines had the heart replacement surgery --- an eight-hour procedure -- on May 20, 2021. The very next day, surgeons performed the kidney transplant.
āThereās nothing worse than this,ā Baines said. āYou are relying on somebody passing before you can live.ā
āHeās a great guy,ā said Dr. Ahmet Kilic, director, heart transplantation and associate professor of surgery for Johns Hopkins University, as well as Bainesā heart transplant surgeon. āHe just smiled and was upbeat the whole time. His family was really supportive of him, and he really didnāt complain much.ā
Baines learned four or five years ago that he had the familial amyloidosis trait from his father, Linwood Jr. The condition led to Linwood's death just as he was about to turn 78. The heredary condition, more common in people of African descent, results from a genetic mutation that produces an amyloid protein that forms into an abnormal shape. These abnormal āmisfoldedā amyloid proteins can be deposited and cluster in the bodyās nerves and other organs and once they build up, this may affect and harm tissue and/or organ function.
Initially, there were no apparent symptoms aside from fluid buildup in his legs, but after being referred to Johns Hopkins, closer to his home, Baines underwent testing on Feb. 1, 2021. He received a call that same night telling him he needed to get into the hospital in two days. Baines' diagnosis was restrictive cardiomyopathy, according to Dr. Kilic. Due to the disease, Baines' heart could not relax appropriately.
Dr. Kilic's team evaluates how to best get a patientās heart to recover. It usually starts with medications from the cardiologist, but when medications fail, other alternatives are considered.
āThree months later, Iām walking out with a donor heart and kidney,ā Baines said.
Upon discovering the grave condition of Bainesā heart, Dr. Kilic implanted a balloon pump to help the blood circulate. The balloon pump wasnāt helping enough, and Baines was placed on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Machine (ECMO), which pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest.

āI donāt want to sensationalize it, but itās really one step away from death in many ways,ā Dr. Kilic said. āThe entire blood supply from your body is being shunted through these catheters and to this device that oxygenates and pumps blood, so it acts to both the right and left side of your heart, as well as your lungs.ā
āVery very scary,ā Marla said of the whole process leading to the transplant. āTwo of our daughters are nurses, so we would always talk to them about what the doctors and nurses were doing, what they are describing. And they would always give us more information and help us out, which is good. Haroldās dad died from this disease because he didnāt really know what he had, had waited too long to figure out what was going on.ā
Baines said he wasnāt scared because he trusted the process. Itās a mantra he has embraced, including during recovery.
āSome days, I did have bad days,ā Baines said. āIt was hard work even after you get the transplant, what you have to do. You have to learn how to eat again, you have to learn how to walk again. Itās still a journey, but Iām in a better place now.ā
āOf course, you will have ups and down,ā Dr. Kilic said. āItās human nature for us to doubt things once in a while or to get down once in a while. But especially when you feel like you are making progress one day, and the next day we are going on to bigger machines ... he was very resilient.ā
A heart became available five days after Baines was placed on ECMO, and the transplants were performed. According to Marla, the donor had to be between the ages of 18 to 39, had to be a male, and had to have the same blood type and the same height and weight as her husband.
Although he was up walking the next day and immediately in therapy, he could only take two steps at first and would have to sit down in a wheelchair. He signed a baseball for one of the many nurses taking care of him and could barely hold the ball. He then moved to 10 steps and was eventually walking the hallway two or three times.
Now Baines jokes that he never ran on the treadmill when he was healthy, but now he switches between the stationary bike, elliptical and treadmill for 30 to 40 minutes a day, six days a week. He mixes in some band work for strength training, but is avoiding any weights until he is a full year removed from surgery.
āIām very thankful to the donorās family for being on a donorās card,ā Baines said. āI have to stress how important it is to be a donor. I remember Ed Farmer [long-time White Sox broadcaster and Baines' ex-teammate] was big on donors, and we would do something downtown every year. Little did I would know I would need it one day.ā
āHeās just a person that had a very quiet, gentle demeanor about him,ā said Deb Carter, a heart transplant nurse who worked with Baines. āHe was very focused on his recovery. He did everything the medical team recommended.ā
Baines was released from the hospital on Fatherās Day, with two of his grandchildren waiting at home to give the already special day an extra special meaning. Very few people knew about Bainesā surgeries and recovery, even some who are very close to him.
He was never a publicity seeker as a player -- actually, far from it. And this situation was about real life as opposed to home runs and RBIs.
āYeah, itās a personal experience,ā Baines said. āIām not looking for sympathy. We wanted to attack it as a family. You will probably see me doing more with donors and stuff like that in Chicago. It was unknown so ... we wanted to wait until a year before we told anybody. We just didnāt know. Itās been good so far.ā
āHeās doing well,ā Dr. Kilic said. āOverall, heās doing wonderful. Heās back to enjoying life and being an ambassador both for baseball and organ transplantation.ā
Baines began paying it forward long before April, National Donate Life month. Baines visited with an older gentleman who was just getting started at Johns Hopkins and appreciated Baines coming and talking and seeing a positive result to give him hope.
And there was a 19-year-old who had a rare heart disease that came out of the blue. He didnāt want to talk to the doctors or nurses about getting on the donorās list, but Baines sat and had a good conversation with him. The young man asked to see Bainesā scar to make sure Baines' accounting of his own journey was true. Two days later, he was willing to go on the list.
āThatās the least I can do, is keep awareness out there for donors,ā Baines said. āPeople die on the waiting list. I was one of the fortunate ones. Iām not going to start out doing PSAs or anything like that. If somebody needs me to visit and talk about getting a heart transplant, Iāll be happy to talk with them.ā
Baines has yet to meet his donorās family. There is a process to making that happen, and the donor's family must want to meet as well. Baines, as he has for year, lives his life for his wife, his children, and his grandchildren -- but now also for the donor who gave him this second chance.
Some transplant recipients have lived as many as 30-40 years post-surgery, āwhich is amazing,ā Dr. Kilic said, so Baines could have many years ahead of him.
āWe usually tell patients that 50 percent of the people are alive at 12 years," Dr. Kilic said, "and 50 percent people have passed away."
On Tuesday, Baines will be back with his White Sox family. Itās an exciting return, one filled with love and appreciation, even if caution still is a watchword.
āItās like having a bunch of mothers,ā Carter said of her nursing team. āWe are very protective of our transplant recipients, and heās amazing. We want him to do really well.ā
āThere are still foods he sort of canāt eat because of medication heās taking,ā Marla said. āHeās got to avoid infections. Wash his hands. So, we are just being cautious, and we are getting used to it. Itās become a part of our lives now.ā
āYou are dealing with two different body parts inside your body that are not yours,ā Baines said. āIāve got 10 months, almost 11 months now. ... When I get my biopsy, it has been zero [rejection], so thatās been a plus. Itās how I look at it. One day at a time.ā
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