Charity golf tournament has new meaning for Doug DeCinces

On this morning, like every morning of his young life, Beckett Williams dances into the living room hardwood wearing flannel pajamas with feet and knows it's time for therapy.

Beckett, the 2-year-old grandson of former Angels All-Star third baseman Doug DeCinces, climbs into a cushioned chair in front of the television. His mother, Amy, puts a black vest over his shoulders and fastens the Velcro straps snuggly around his tiny chest.

Then she gently places a nebulizer mask over his mouth and nose, its hose delivering puffs of warm medicated air to inhale. She turns on a small medical device that rapidly inflates and deflates the vest, filling the room with a familiar rattle and hum of the air compressor.

His father, T.J., turns up the volume on "Top Gun," Beckett's favorite movie. The boy loves airplanes and Angels baseball.

Everything on his 31/2-foot body — the guitars on his pajamas, his curly blond hair, his tiny fingers and covered feet — shakes, loosening whatever mucus builds in his lungs and moving it toward larger airways so he can breathe more easily.

When Beckett was 12 days old, he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a genetic defect that causes the body's mucus-producing cells to produce thick secretions. For 30 minutes every morning and night, he wears the vest that beats on his chest wall. The disease is relentless.

"When a child has CF, everything that is normal changes," said Amy Williams, who, until Beckett got the vest when he was a year old, took turns with T.J. patting on 12 spots on their son's chest and back for daily therapy.

"This is our normal."

A black and white photo of Beckett wearing an Angels cap and T-shirt and crawling onto third base at Angel Stadium adorns the invitation to the Angels Baseball Foundation 65 Roses Golf Classic benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The annual event, started by former Angel Don Baylor 33 years ago, take places Sunday and Monday at Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park.

"Knowing Don, I played in 17 of these events over the years before finding out that CF hit close to home," said DeCinces, an Angel from 1982-87 who resides in Laguna Beach.

"Watching Beckett grow up has been very emotional, and seeing how my family has handled everything to try to give him the best chances at living a full life has made me very proud."

65 Roses takes its name from how young children tried to say "cystic fibrosis." DeCinces, in the early years of the event, remembers meeting CF children who would die before they were 10. But with early diagnosis and medical advances in treatment, CF patients can live well into adulthood.

Beckett's parents, T.J, who is in real estate, and Amy, who designs new home interiors, are self-employed so they can be home to care for Beckett and their older son, Brody, 4. They deal with CF as a family.

After morning therapy, Beckett, freed from vest and mask, scrambles out to the backyard with his brother, dodging overturned Big Wheels, toy cars, a batting tee, plastic bat and Wiffle ball, to climb onto a large trampoline. The two run and jump high, the motion triggering Beckett to cough.

"This is a good thing," says Amy, watching her sons chase each other before Beckett hops for safety into her arms.

The parents have taken every step to keep Beckett healthy. All visitors wash their hands with sanitizer. The windows in Beckett's room are kept closed and the air purifier stays on beside his crib.

Shoes stay outside to keep dirt off the floors that are now wood instead of the dust-trapping carpet. Even their two Labradoodles play on artificial grass so the dogs don't drag soil into the home.

"The boys are too young to understand what CF is but they've handled everything really well," said T.J. Williams, who became active in CF charities last year and is chairman of this year's 65 Roses event. "We have a lot of fun."

The family went to Disneyland last month and bought Beckett's duck caller, which, like all the whistles and the harmonica around the house, get him to blow, breathe and strengthen his lungs.

They went to the Miramar Air Show so Beckett could watch the planes. They made it to a half dozen Angels games this season so Brody, who likes to smack home runs in the backyard, can see baseball and Beckett could clap at the sight of fireworks.