LEAGUE CITY, Texas – A 15-year-old running athlete battling cancer believes a mix up with her superstition is why the Astros didn’t perform their best Game 1 of the World Series.
Calli Moore, a League City track and cross-country runner, was practicing for the new season when she said something didn’t feel right.
“I had been practicing really hard only to get worse which is really weird and kind of frustrating because I didn’t know what was going on at the time,” Moore said.
Her mom, Chelsea Singleton, thought her daughter was nervous starting her first year of high school. But things changed when she returned home one day.
“Monday, she came home from school and said, I feel like I was hit by a truck then Tuesday she still didn’t feel great, had a little swelling on her neck then Wednesday we took her to the hospital,” Singleton said.
Doctors began running blood tests on the teen. Singleton recalls Moore’s doctors told her to go to Texas Children’s Hospital. Friday morning Calli was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
“It was very overwhelming to go from, ‘oh you probably have mono, well it’s going around,’ to ‘hey you have leukemia.’ It was kind of a lot to take in,” Moore said. “The first week was really hard.”
Eventually, Moore said, she got into a routine and was settling into living at the hospital.
She had several family members, friends, and classmates supporting her. She was documenting her journey on TikTok.
After her first week of chemotherapy, Moore was improving. So, her mom went back to their home to pick up somethings including Astros gear to support the team in the postseason.
Singleton said since her daughter was hooked up to several IVs so she couldn’t wear any of her Astros shirts.
“I asked in our neighborhood page if anyone had a large Astros jersey so I could take it to her,” Singleton recalls. She did wear it the night I took it to her. After that she put it on the back of her wheelchair and then they won every single game with the jersey in the back of the wheelchair.”
From that point on, mom and daughter closely watched the jersey behind the chair.
“A couple of times people tried to take it off and we’re like ‘no! You can’t touch it,’” Singleton said.
21 days after she was admitted to the hospital, Calli was discharged.
“The mast is shrinking, the tumor is shrinking in her chest which we’re really grateful for,” said Singleton.
As they were preparing to leave Texas Children’s Hospital, the Astros were playing Game 1 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. The two were in the hospital room with family and friends helping them clean the room.
“One of my mom’s friends like to organize everything to get into the car, she’s like ‘oh let me take this off’ and she took it like halfway off and I’m like, ‘stop what you’re doing, stop,’” Moore said.
On their way home, the family closely listening to the Astros on the radio, “they’re catching up to us,” Moore said. “Like we were in the lead, it has to be because she moved it halfway. Then we lost and we’re like that’s exactly what it was.”
The now superstitious 15-year-old believes the slight move on the Carlos Correa jersey was a reason the Astros took their first loss in the postseason.
“I think it did. That was it,” Moore said.
Now in the comfort of her home, Moore said, she is watching the jersey closely.
“I’m expecting them to win. I hope they do really good. All because of the jersey,” Moore said.
For the next 8 to 10 months Moore will have regular intense chemotherapy, according to her mom.
“It is amazing to sleep in a real bed and not a hospital bed,” Moore said. “It’s great to not have people wake me up at 4 in the morning just to take my blood pressure and draw blood. That’s been nice.”