| | NEW YORK -- When Mel Stottlemyre jogged out of the dugout
during pregame introductions Wednesday, the New York Yankees' home
opener was a success.
It didn't matter that their 8-6 win over Texas didn't come for
nearly four more hours. What mattered was that their pitching coach
was back at work, one day after beginning chemotherapy for bone
marrow cancer.
|  | | The cancer Mel Stottlemyre, left, has is called multiple myeloma, a malignant disease of the bone marrow. |
"It was difficult seeing him before the game because it was my
first chance to talk to him since he announced it," said starting
pitcher David Cone, who has pitched 11 of his 14 major league
seasons with Stottlemyre as his coach. "But during the game it was
a lot easier because we both had our jobs to do."
Stottlemyre, who is receiving medication in his chest through a
catheter, was restricted in his duties. Bullpen coach Tony
Cloninger watched Cone warm up, and Stottlemyre did not make any
trips to the mound, even when Cone struggled his control in the
third inning.
But Stottlemyre did spend most of the game sitting next to
manager Joe Torre in the dugout.
"It was strange to be warming up before the game without Mel
watching," Cone said. "But Mel is so strong. He was in the game.
He kept telling me to be more aggressive and throw strikes."
Stottlemyre, a three-time 20-game winner for the Yankees,
received a loud, prolonged ovation from the crowd -- as well as the
Rangers -- as he jogged onto the field during pregame introductions.
He waved his hat to the crowd and appeared uncomfortable by all the
attention.
"The one thing he wanted was not to be treated any
differently," said Torre, who missed the first six weeks last
season while being treated for prostate cancer. "That's tough.
He'll do his job and hopefully this stuff will go away."
Stottlemyre, who was diagnosed with the disease a year ago
during spring training, didn't talk after the game.
The coach announced Sunday that he has been diagnosed with
multiple myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow. He began a four-month
series of chemotherapy treatments two days later and was going to
miss the opener Tuesday until it was postponed.
"It wouldn't have been opening day if Mel hadn't shown up,"
Torre said.
Multiple myeloma is a type of cancer formed by malignant plasma
cells. Normal plasma cells are crucial to the immune system but
when they are produced at an abnormal rate, they can cause tumors,
anemia and fatigue. Roger Neilson, coach of the NHL's Philadelphia
Flyers, currently is undergoing treatment for the same disease.
Following the four months of chemotherapy, Stottlemyre will have
a stem-cell transplant, a procedure in which certain blood cells
critical to healthy bone marrow are harvested from the patient's
blood, then reintroduced after the chemotherapy has destroyed most
of the cancerous plasma cells.
Stottlemyre's original diagnosis came at about the same time as
Torre left the team to undergo his surgery. In October 1998, Darryl
Strawberry had surgery for colon cancer. Last year, Yankee Hall of
Famers Joe DiMaggio and Catfish Hunter both died. Three players,
Paul O'Neill, Scott Brosius and Luis Sojo, all lost their fathers
during the year.
"It gets old going through this with people you are close to,"
Cone said. "But in some sense we are no different than a lot of
families who have to deal with these things. Only we have to do it
in public." | |
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