The away team

Wakefield put it best. “It humbles you. These kids are fighting for their lives, and we’re just playing games,’’ he said, pausing to sign one last baseball. “So it’s important to come here and put a smile on their faces.’’

The smile on Ochieng’s face, meanwhile, was widening by the minute. A few months ago, he was unable to walk, a byproduct of his cancer treatment. Flying to Pittsburgh and meeting Ortiz? A dream come true. “To come on a trip like this, getting away from your parents, making new friends - wow,’’ Ochieng said softly, clutching a baseball he would not soon put aside.

Moments like these - getting to meet ballplayers they idolize; catching a Sox road game from a stadium luxury suite; consuming all the hot dogs, ice cream, and arcade games any teen could want - will be remembered long after this summer fades to autumn.

For the 35 teens making last weekend’s trip, most of them in active treatment at Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center, these were among the few times in their young lives when fun and games, not treatment protocols, have filled their daily calendars. Now in their ninth year, these twice-yearly, Sox-centric trips have become a highlight of Dana-Farber’s patient and family outreach program - and a life-changer for those who experience them.

“Our first trip, I had no idea how this would work,’’ recalled Lisa Scherber, director of patient and family programs at the cancer center. “The minute I saw those kids in the airport, though, connecting with each other, talking about their medications, showing their scars - I knew we could do this.’’ Nearly a decade later, she added, “It’s become something unbelievable, better than we thought it could be.’’

The autograph sessions and sightseeing excursions are special enough, say Scherber and her team, which in Pittsburgh included six doctors and five nurses from Dana-Farber. Even more precious, though, are the unscripted moments that draw patients and caregivers together in ways rarely facilitated by a hospital setting.