(MCT) — Before every start in this season of rediscovery, White Sox pitcher Jake Peavy hears two distinct voices inside his head that regularly provide inspiration.

With due respect to manager Robin Ventura and pitching coach Don Cooper, one belongs to Peavy's grandmother in Alabama; the other to a dear friend in San Diego. Both maternal grandma Dama Lolley, 75, and Darrel Akerfelds, the 49-year-old bullpen coach of the Padres, are suffering from different forms of terminal cancer. Neither can possibly grasp how much, in their final months, they have helped Peavy seize every day in what could be his last season in Chicago.