Dave Dravecky
Will Clark hugged Dave Dravecky after he threw out theopening pitch at the Giants game on Aug. 10, 2009Dave Dravecky threw out the opening pitch at the Giants game last night. According to Wikipedia, in 1988--
"a cancerous desmoid tumor was found in Dravecky's pitching arm. He underwent surgery on October 7, 1988, removing half of the deltoid muscle in his pitching arm and freezing the humerus bone in an effort to eliminate all of the cancerous cells. By July 1989, he was pitching in the minors, and on August 10, he made a highly publicized return to the major leagues, pitching 8 innings and defeating Cincinnati 4-3. In his following start five days later against the Expos, Dravecky pitched three no-hit innings, but in the fifth inning, he felt a tingling sensation in his arm. In the sixth inning he started off shaky, allowing a home run to the lead off batter and then hitting the second batter, Andres Galarraga. Then, on his first pitch to Tim Raines, his humerus bone snapped, ending his career."
Upon hearing this story it took a lot of restraint for me to not cry at the baseball game. Actually, I am dabbing at tears right now as I type.What kind of fucked up shit is cancer to take this guy's pitching arm?! This all happened 20 years ago when I didn't even know about the Giants, but regardless, I am angry.Would I be this upset if I wasn't impacted by cancer? Would I be this angry if I were a Dodgers fan instead of a Giants fan? I don't know the answer to these questions, but I know we should all be angry because Dave Dravecky is just one person among millions who deals with this reality.
Brett and I before the game