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Leukemia survivor Franklin headed into his last season at Berkeley High 

Lee Franklin has a dramatic life story to tell, but right now there’s simply no time. There are games to be played, and in those games we find these beautiful frozen moments called crunch time, and in crunch time, Lee Franklin just wants the ball. There’s no time for anything else. 

A late season game for Berkeley High football, and the score is tight. It’s third and long, and Yellowjacket quarterback Raymond Pinkston drops back to pass. Suddenly faced with a host of onrushing defenders, Pinkston wisely pushes the eject button: he heaves a pass toward the sideline - and ducks.  

The pass, aimed vaguely in the general direction of wide receiver Lee Franklin, is quite high, sailing toward the bench, the cheerleaders, the stands. But Franklin, all 5-foot-10 of him, elevates. And twists, contorts his body impossibly. And stretches. And, somehow, gets a hand on the ball. Just one hand, but somehow the ball glues there - and Franklin tumbles earthward, ball in hand. First down Yellowjackets. Momentum, Yellowjackets. Money play. 

“He’s one of those kids who always wants the ball,” Berkeley High football coach Matt Bissell says. “We joke that he’s like the title of that Keyshawn Johnson book: ‘Just give me the damn ball, coach, and we’ll win’” 

“Lee’s a money player,” Berkeley High baseball coach Tim Moellering says. “He’s at his best when the game is on the line.” 

Money play - this phrase keeps coming up with Lee. How about a definition? Franklin: “A money player is the guy down the stretch, he wants the ball in his hands. He wants the last shot.” 

Two months later, the Berkeley High basketball team faces Bishop O’Dowd in the first round of the NCS playoffs. Trailing 48-47 with twenty seconds left, with Bishop O’Dowd in possession of the basketball, the Yellowjackets season seems finished. But Lee Franklin, point guard for the ‘Jackets, wants the ball. So he takes it. Snatching the ball from the Dragons’ Dave Brutocao-Kemp, Franklin drives, scores, and gives the Yellowjackets the lead, 49-47. Money play. Unfortunately the ‘Jackets go on to lose the game on another money play, a buzzer-beating jumper by O’Dowd’s Johnnie Bryant. 

“Things didn’t go our way too much,” Franklin said of the heartbreaker. “We fought hard though. It’s just part of life, part of the game.” 

So life goes on. And just two days later, there is Franklin, batting leadoff and playing second base for the Berkeley High baseball team in their season opener. The Yellowjackets lead 5-2 in the top of the sixth inning, but have worked themselves into a two-out jam: opposing runners stand on second and third. Lee Franklin wants the ball. And then, a soft chopper up the middle, which Franklin backhands. The batter appears likely to beat the throw to first, but the force is Franklin’s only chance to stop the runner from third from scoring on the play. So Franklin spins, and plants, and looks to first. If his hurried, off-balance throw isn’t on the money, the runner from second will also score. 

And this is exactly what the runner from second is thinking as he turns hard around third base. The second baseman spins, and plants, and throws, and the runner from second looks home. But then Franklin turns back toward the third base line, and, look here, he is still in possession of the baseball. Making an unusually cool split-second decision for a high school infielder, Franklin has chosen to sacrifice one run and likely save another by only faking the dangerous throw to first. And the runner from second, realizing a second too late and now trying desperately to slam on the brakes, is hung out to dry. A short rundown between third and home, and the Yellowjackets are out of the inning. One run is in, but the inning is over - and the ‘Jackets still lead 5-3, the score by which they would win the game. Money play. 

“I just like to make plays,” Franklin says. “I like to get my teammates into it, get the crowd into it. I like to play to the crowd.” 

That much is apparent. But what’s this about a dramatic life story? 

Franklin, the three-sport starter, isn’t the one to bring it up. Football. Basketball. Baseball. And now, as a senior, college applications – an outstanding student-athlete, Franklin is already accepted to University of Arizona and Fresno State, and is waiting to hear from USC and a few of the UCs. He is hoping to play football and/or baseball at one of those schools, and is sending out highlight reels and letters of interest to coaches. He is busy talking sports with his number one fan, his grandfather, whom Lee calls “Pops,” who attends all of Lee’s games. He is busy spending his last few months in town with his best friend Darryl Perkins, a basketball teammate, who is bound for Howard University. And he is, of course, busy making plays. There’s simply no room, no time, for Franklin’s disease. 

So we won’t spend too much time on it here: One week before turning 13, shortly after he got back from winning the Bambino World Series with the 11-12 year-old Oakland All-Star baseball team, Lee was diagnosed with leukemia. Suddenly he found himself subjected to a two-year period of extended hospital stays, radiation treatments, and chemotherapy. Long before contemplating his driver’s test, Franklin was faced with the looming possibility of a bone marrow transplant. 

Franklin’s body responded to the radiation and chemotherapy, and now Franklin considers himself one of the lucky ones. The leukemia went into remission, and the bone marrow transplant was averted. Doctors now tell him that there is a less than five percent chance that the disease will return. 

Franklin downplays the drama inherent in all of this, says and it was impossible to keep his thoughts from returning immediately to athletics: “I never thought that the leukemia was going to overtake me,” Franklin says. “I kept a positive attitude. My main goal was to get back to the baseball field, to the court, to the football field.” 

One gets the feeling that the young man considers this, too, “all part of life, part of the game.” Lee Franklin continues to survive, and he survives in order to continue to make plays.