Dave Dravecky survived three types of cancer | cryosurgery | spiral oblique | radiation therapy

DESCRIPTION

Dave Dravecky has survived three types of cancer, but at a high cost, specifically the amputation of his left arm and shoulder.  A pitcher in major league baseball who threw with his left arm, it was devastating news when a tumor was discovered in that arm.  Doctors feared he would never pitch again, but through a procedure called cryosurgery, Dave made a miraculous comeback.  However, not long after he returned to the big leagues, while making a pitch, his arm broke.  Dave’s faith has played a major role in his life once he had to retire from baseball.  He has engaged in skiing, golf and fishing, and serves as a motivational speaker.

Dave Dravecky’s cancer journey began in the winter of 1987 when he noticed a pea-sized lump halfway between his left shoulder and his elbow.  Doctors said an MRI did not reveal anything of concern, but by the end of the 1988 baseball season, the lump had grown to half the size of a golf ball.  Another MRI showed Dave had cancer.

Doctors said they would have to remove half of his deltoid muscle, and that outside of a miracle, Dave would never pitch again.  After ten-plus hours of surgery to remove the mass, doctors performed cryosurgery, which froze and killed all the cancer cells in his left arm’s humerus bone.  For Dave, it was a very difficult time physically, mentally and emotionally.  However, after healing, he returned to the big leagues on August 10, 1989 to pitch.  He went eight innings and was the winning pitcher as his San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds.

However, five days later when the Giants were playing in Montreal, as Dave released a pitch, his left arm snapped in half.  In acute pain, Dave was rushed to a hospital to get x-rays.  He was diagnosed with a spiral oblique, in which the bone was spiraling and rotating and breaking at the same time.  Dave was forced to retire.  He went through radiation treatment, which resulted in a staph infection that threatened his life.  That plus two more diagnoses of cancer forced him to have his left should and arm removed on June 18, 1991. 

Physically, a determined Dave Dravecky chose to physically make the most of his life.  Although arthritis forced him to stop, for a time he played golf with his good arm.  He has also participated in fishing and skiing. 

Dave spreads the inspirational side of his story as an author and motivational speaker.  He has also established a ministry, https://www.endurance.org, which seeks to be of support to others.

Additional Resources:

Website: https://www.davedravecky.org

Ministry: https://www.endurance.org

TRANSCRIPT

Bruce Morton: Greetings, and welcome to the @CancerInterviews podcast.  I am your host, Bruce Morton, and on this segment, we have a special guest with a powerful story.  He is Dave Dravecky of Mesa, Arizona.  A rare form of cancer cut short his career as a major league baseball player, resulting in the amputation of his pitching arm.  But Dave responded with perseverance, faith and the strength that came therefrom.  It is a story we hope will resonate with you, and you share with somebody else, we hope it will resonate with them as well.  So, now let’s get started, and Dave, welcome to Cancer Interviews.

Dave Dravecky:  Thank you, Bruce.  It is great to spend some time with you.

BM: Dave, everyone has a different story in terms of their cancer journey, but we always like to start from the same place, specifically, that we would like to know more about you, exclusive of your cancer journey, and keep in mind, in our audience, we have an interesting mix.  Some people watching and listening are quite familiar with your baseball career, while for others, anything you say they will be hearing for the first time.  So, if you would, against that backdrop, tell us a little bit about where you are from, what you have done for a living and what you are doing now, that sort of thing.

DD: Absolutely.  I was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, and it was there that this dream was birthed in me to play baseball, but I was also really, really active in sports.  I played basketball, played football, ran track, and I loved being active as an athlete.  I took to baseball and through my amateur career, started developing my skills to the point where in high school, my coach looked at me and said he thought I could play the next level.  This was in my senior year of high school, and I had this dream that one day I would be good enough to be the next Sandy Koufax or Vida Blue, because those were my two heroes, growing up.  I waited after my senior year, and no university across the country recruited me to play for them, not one.  So, I did the next best thing because I loved baseball so much.  I stayed local and walked on at Youngstown State University and I had the opportunity of playing there for four years.  After my fourth year there, I was drafted in the 21st round by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and it was a dream come true for me because now I was a professional baseball player, and I was so excited about this opportunity.  From there, I progressed through the minor leagues and got traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the San Diego Padres.  So, this baseball career began, and I was overwhelmed by that I was able to experience my dream come true.  I mean, here’s this kid from Youngstown, Ohio, and all of a sudden, he finds himself on the brink of making it to the big leagues.  It was a wonderful place to be in, and through that whole experience, about the only thing I did in my life was work for my father for one year in a machine shop.  I hated that because I couldn’t stand being inside and working in grease and dirt.  I did that for a year and then I chose in the landscaping industry because I figured if I didn’t make it in baseball, that’s what I wanted to do with my life because I loved being outdoors, I loved working in the dirt, but outside.  That was the desire of my heart, but all of a sudden, this baseball thing started becoming a reality, and it was after being traded to the Padres, that the next year, in 1982, I made it to the big leagues.  I spanned that career from 1982 to 1989.  After going through that, and all I went through in battling cancer and then eventually retiring and then from there having to battle more cancer and ultimately lose my arm, the big question was, what was I going to do with my life.  As an amputee, I couldn’t define that.  I didn’t know what I would do, but all of a sudden I had all these incredible opportunities to tell my story, and out of that, we had an opportunity to start a non-profit, a ministry called Endurance with Jan and Dave Dravecky, to encourage cancer patients, amputees, people who lose loved ones, folks who experience depression, so my journey has been amazing with all these different aspects of my story, but I say all that, Bruce, to say this: Every one of us has that story to tell, and each story is powerful in and of itself.  Just because I was elevated to a place of being under the limelight of major league baseball doesn’t mean my story is more important than the person who is listening to this podcast. 

BM: Dave, in a long-ago chapter in my life, I broadcast minor league baseball at the Class ‘A’ level and every guy on that team had the dream of playing in the big leagues.  Of all those guys over three seasons, only two realized that dream.  You did.  Share with us what that was like the first time you stood on a mound and faced a big-league hitter.

DD: After working really hard in the minor leagues, I had one advantage going for me because I didn’t throw very hard, but I was left-handed.  Back then, they were looking for lefthanders who could throw strikes and get people out.  So, during my minor league career, I worked hard to the point of after four years of being called up to the Padres.  Bruce, that first day I cannot tell you what it was like because I don’t remember.  It was so overwhelming to me.  All I remember as I sit here, I can tell you that I can picture myself at the San Diego airport with my equipment in a duffel bag and going to the ballpark.  I can only tell you about my first appearance as a big leaguer if I go back and look at the stats because I was so overwhelmed by this, this dream that came true for me, because I never thought it would.  I was this kid from Youngstown, Ohio, and no one had come out of Youngstown to play at the big league level since a player in the 1950s, and I am not sure because I am not a history buff, so I think I was the first kid from Youngstown to get to the big leagues in a long time, so nobody expects that to happen from that part of the country.  It’s cold.  You don’t get to play baseball year-round, so for me to be standing on that mound was absolutely overwhelming.  I can tell you this.  I do remember standing on the mound and looking at every hitter and every one of them looked like Babe Ruth, and I wondered whether I could get them out.  So, the experience was one of exhilaration, it was one of anxiety, it was one of fear, it was one of gratefulness, but at the same time, trying to remember that specific moment, it just eludes me because it was so overwhelming.

BM: Now let’s hit the fast forward up to 1988.  In 1988, at some point, you learned that something wasn’t quite right and doctors needed to take a look at you.  Under what circumstances did you learn something was wrong, and once you inquired, what did you find out?

DD: Actually, this was in 1987, when I was traded from the San Diego Padres to the San Francisco Giants.  You know, I had just come off five years with the Padres, where I was in an All-Star Game and a World Series against the Detroit Tigers in 1984, but then all of a sudden I got traded from a last place team to a first place team, which was amazing, and we had gone into postseason play and I pitched two of the best games of my career as a Giant against the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.  So, coming off of that year, I was so excited about the next year, but I had noticed, halfway between my shoulder and my elbow in the winter of ’87, a small, pea-sized lump.  I got permission from the Giants to go to the San Diego Padres doctors and they did an MRI.  That MRI did not reveal anything, so they just said we will keep an eye on it, it doesn’t seem to be anything right now, but if anything changes, just let us know.  I went through the winter, I prepared for the regular season, went to spring training in 1988, Roger Craig told me I was going to be the Opening Day pitcher against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and I gotta tell ya, I was not thinking of this small, pea-sized lump in my arm.  I was excited about the new year, coming off of ’87 and pitching so well, thinking 1988 was going to be my year.  Keep in mind, in the background, 1988 was Orel Hershiser’s year, but I thought it was going to be mine.  We started the season, I was the Opening Day pitcher for the San Francisco Giants against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine, Dodger Stadium with a packed house and facing Fernando Valenzuela.  I mean, in the baseball world, you can’t paint a better picture than that.  We defeated the Dodgers that day, five to one, so needless to say, I was thinking that 1988 was going to be my year.  By the end of that year, that lump had grown to half the size of a golf ball on the outside of my left arm, halfway between the shoulder and the elbow, so needless to say, there was tremendous concern as doctors watched it grow.  I got an MRI, and that MRI revealed the fact that I did have cancer.

BM: You had been diagnosed, and following diagnosis has to come treatment.  What did treatment entail?

DD: In the exam room, my wife Jan and I were sitting there and up until that point, the conversation around that lump in my arm was that it was more than likely Blockers bruise, and it occurred because of the amount of throwing I was doing.  In some cases, this can occur, micro muscle fiber can tear and calcify and harden into a mass.  So, going into the exam room after the MRI, that’s all we are thinking, and the door to the exam room just happened to be open three or four inches and we heard the doctors coming toward our room, so we were anticipating that they were going to come in and tell us that it was a benign fibrous thing, like a Blockers bruise.  But then they stopped and put the film under the lights outside the exam room and we heard the word ‘tumor.’  We were shocked.  We were just sitting there, we were scared, and we looked at each other and said, “Tumor? Cancer?”  And I looked at Jan and I said to her, “Let’s pray.  We need to pray.  Before the doctors come in, we need to pray.”  I don’t wax eloquently when I pray, so I just said a simple prayer, “God, we have no idea what we are about to face, but whatever it is, give us the strength to endure the journey, that’s all I ask.”  In that moment, the doctors came in and they said that in fact, I had cancer in my left arm, that they would have to go in and do surgery and remove 50 percent of my deltoid muscle.  What I learned was, in removing the 50 percent of my deltoid muscle that you are actually going to lose 95 percent use of that muscle.  The doctors said, based on what they had to do, outside of a miracle, you are never going to pitch again.  At this point, I had already become a Christian and in my mind, I said, “God, you are in control of this picture.  The doctors are limited in what they know but based on what they know I have to trust everything that they are saying, and what they are going to do because You have placed them in my life to care for me.”  So, when they said outside of a miracle I will never pitch again, I thought that’s the reality of what we see, but what we don’t know is, what is God’s plan for my life, moving forward.  What is this going to look like?  I said to myself I have two choices: I can just focus on getting my health in order and retire from baseball, or I can focus on trying to get my health in order and make a comeback.  Then at that point, the question came into my mind, if I walk away from the game now, I am going to wonder for the rest of my life if I could have made a comeback.  I don’t want to live like that.  That’s not how I was raised.  My dad always said to work as hard as I can to be the best I can.  Don’t quit.  Keep going until somebody says you can’t do it anymore.  He also said whatever you choose to do, have fun doing it.  And that is exactly what I was doing.  I wasn’t a professional baseball player.  I was a little kid playing a big kid’s game and having so much fun at it.  On top of that, you get paid to do it.  It was this incredible place where I found myself in, so I thought I am going to keep trying because until somebody slams the door and I can’t pitch and they tell me I can’t pitch, I am going to keep moving forward with that goal in mind.  Fast forward after ten months of intense surgery, ten-and-a-half hours of surgery to remove the mass in my arm along with doing cryosurgery, which froze and killed all the cancer cells in the humerus bone in my left arm, after that, now I had to heal, and the doctor said none of us know whether the bone will grow back and be strong enough to throw a baseball because of the cryosurgery.  It was a rollercoaster ride physically, emotionally and spiritually.  There were days when I felt awesome and there were days in which I felt horrible and there were days when I was somewhere in between, but through the encouragement of my teammates, the organization, the doctors, the nurses, the therapists, the trainers, all those people that were involved, through their encouragement, one step at a time, it got me to the point that on August 10, 1989, I was on the mound getting ready to pitch again, in the big leagues against the Cincinnati Reds.

BM: We talked your being atop a mound for your first big league game.  How did that feel in this journey back to the big leagues?

DD: It was awesome.  Trust me.  I do remember that one, and it was a really good experience standing on the mound and the first thing that flooded over me was to give thanks to God for the chance to be back on the mound again.  Here is why I say that.  I am so thankful for all the people that He put in my life every step of the way that led me back to that level and perform at the highest level of professional baseball.  I was just so overwhelmed with thankfulness, but then, in that moment, I thought, “Oh, my gosh.  I am getting ready to play again.  It’s time to strap it on and go get ‘em.  I stood on that mound and the umpire said, “Play ball,” and it was like “For the Love Of The Game” with Kevin Costner when he is standing on the mound, and his vision is very blurry because the noise and all the things that are going on around him are actually impacting him and where he is on the mound in that moment.  Then all of a sudden, he says this phrase: “Clear the mechanism.”  And in clearing the mechanism, it was like the camera took away all the fog and cloudiness and brought into focus the narrow stream right down to the catcher’s glove to the point where he could read those words on the glove.  That’s exactly what it felt like when I was standing on the mound.  In essence, when the umpire said, “Play ball,” it was like I heard ‘clear the mechanism’, get your focus and lock in.  That day, I threw 93 pitches.  Get this.  In today’s baseball, do you think for one minute in I were pitching under the same conditions that I would be, number one, permitted to go 93 pitches and number two, go eight full innings, on to a victory?  No!  That would never happen in today’s baseball.  Never.  I would have had a very strict pitch limit, probably no more than 25 to 35 pitches, and the moment I hit that number, they would have taken me right out of the game.  But here’s a thing that is even more interesting in this story as to it relating to the comeback game.  This is where people who have very little understanding of my story through baseball can now relate.  On that day, KNBR, the San Francisco radio station that broadcasts the Giants announced that there was a little boy by the name of Alex Valajos, that was battling leukemia.  About a week earlier I had met with him and his family, and we had done a public meeting with a news station to bring awareness into the community about Alex’s story.  On that day, Isabel Lemon, who was with KNBR at the time, went on the airwaves to announce a donation for every pitch I threw to help little Alex find a bone marrow donor because he was about to get a bone marrow transplant to save his life.  They needed people to donate blood to see if they could find a match.  I am driving into the ballpark that day and I hear on the radio that day what’s going to happen, and I’m like, “Oh, my gosh!  Talk about adding more pressure.  Now, the weight of this six-year-old’s life is in the balance of this game called baseball, and the number of pitches that I throw.  That day I walked into manager Roger Craig’s office, and I asked if he had heard on the radio what is going on with this little boy.  Well, KNBR has just announced with every pitch I make, they are going to donate money to help little Alex get a bone marrow transplant.  “That means you have got to let me go at least 100 pitches,” I said.  Roger said he understood what I was saying, but the Giants are in a pennant race and have to win the game and that comes first.  I told Roger to let me go as deep into the game as possible, and that day with me throwing 93 pitches, they raised more than $200,000 in a community where most people were aware of what was going on with Alex, but didn’t know him, and yet they stepped up to the plate, no pun intended, and donated more than $200,000 to help offset the costs, while more than 7,000 donated blood to see if they could be a match.  Bruce, that was overwhelming to me.  That was the story.  My comeback was a platform.  Baseball was just a platform.  As I stood there, I was overwhelmed.  Alex actually was there, and after the game, he was allowed in the Giants’ clubhouse.  In the press conference, I was holding him in my arms.  I have a photo of Alex and I together in the press conference, and one of the reporters looked at Alex and said, “How do you think Dave did?”  And Alex, with this big, old smile on his face, said, “He did goooooooooooooood!”  It was so precious.  Here is the sad yet joyful part of this story.  Alex passed away a year later, and it was really sad, but over 7,000 came forward.  In 2014 or 2015, we had a celebration for my 25-year anniversary of the comeback game.  Alex’s mom and dad were invited.  Gene and Sue Valajos were invited, and Gene said, “I know how much you hurt when you heard we lost Alex, but I want you to know there have been at least eight to ten people who have said because of that blood drive, their family member was able to find a perfect match so that they could have a bone marrow transplant and their lives were saved.  That story is a story I will never forget.  It is at the center of the comeback story. 

BM: Next up is probably the most difficult part of our conversation because we just heard this heartwarming story, and now we will shift gears to something that was not heartwarming, but your comeback hit a very difficult point later that season in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.  If you would, take us through what happened that night and its aftermath. 

DD: I would like to share it within the context of something that happened a few years ago.  I happened to be on a boat with some friends that invited my wife and I to go on a boat trip with them down the St. Lawrence Seaway.  We felt so fortunate to be on this trip.  It was a moment in our lives when we really needed some R & R, and as we were floating down the St. Lawrence Seaway, taking our ride, we came around a bend and all of a sudden, out from the horizon, stood this enormous structure called Olympic Stadium, which was the place where I threw my last pitch in my baseball career.  My dear friend who was standing next to me said, “Dave.  Are you okay?  What’s wrong?”  I said, “You are not going to believe this, but that is where I threw my last pitch.  That’s Olympic Stadium.”  He said he would be right back.  He ran into the cabin of the boat and came out with two large glasses of cabernet sauvignon, and he handed me one.  This is what was so beautiful about it.  He did not say a word, Bruce, he just lifted a glass and we toasted, and we stood there in ten minutes in silence, and we allowed for all those feelings and emotions to rush over me.  In those emotions, I am reminded of going back and remembering about four hours prior to that game, having a conversation with Bob Knepper.  We were having our pregame meal.  It was August 15, 1989, and we were talking about amazing this experience was, and the miracle that had taken place in my story of getting back on the mound.  Bob looks at me and he says, “I hate to burst your bubble, but it is not the miracle of your comeback that is so significant, it is the miracle of salvation.  It is the miracle of you meeting Jesus back in 1981 when you were challenged to read the Bible and coming to faith and putting your trust in Him.  That is the real story here, the real miracle and what God is doing is giving you a platform through baseball to share His love with those who hurt.”  I thought, “That’s really cool, Bob, but I am four hours away from a start.  I am getting ready to throw a baseball game, so all I have got on my mind is pitching this game.”  Now, fast forward to the game.  We’re in the sixth inning, I am pitching so well, and I am thinking this is amazing, I am going to finish my career strong, I am going to finish out the season strong, I am going to get a new contract.  I was thinking about all these things in front of me as a result of what was going on in the present.  In the sixth inning, Tim Raines comes to the plate and Terry Kennedy calls for a sinking fastball on the outside part of the plate.  I rare back to throw that pitch and my left arm snaps in half as I release the ball toward home plate.  Actually, I have had people who have said, including Will Clark, who was playing first base that it sounded like a “gunshot”.  He said, “Dave, it was like someone shot a gun from the upper deck, and you dropped.  That’s how loud the crack of your bone was.”  I went lame there, on the ground, and I have to tell you, I wasn’t in a mode of ‘Why me?’, I was overwhelmed with Bob Knepper’s words four hours earlier.  All I could hear in my mind was what Bob was saying.  The miracle is the miracle of salvation.  God had given me a platform through baseball to share His love with those who hurt.  So, there I was, laying on the ground and I caught a glimpse of those words of what it might look like, but I wasn’t sure because I knew as I lay there that my career had likely come to an end, but at the same time I was overwhelmed with this thought in my mind as to what Bob had just said to me.  They rushed me to the hospital to get x-rays.  I ended up having a spiral oblique, which was literally where the bone was spiraling and rotating and breaking at the same time.  As a result, it was splintered, it wasn’t a straight break.  You know what is really bizarre is the that the doctors who ordered the x-rays and saw me afterwards prescribed a strong dose of pain medication for me.  I got in the cab, I went back to the hotel, went into my room, and my teammates Scotty Garrelts, Atlee Hammaker, Brett Butler, Greg Linton, Jeff Brantley, all those guys were waiting for me in my room, and the door was left open because a couple guys started knocking on the door to check up on me, and we decided to keep the door open and in comes manager Roger Craig and pitching coach Norm Sherry, teammates kept coming in, they were all checking up on me to make sure I was okay.  Do you know how powerful that was for me?  Just to know how much these guys cared.  I think there is a huge lesson in this for those of us who are battling cancer or are around people who are experiencing cancer in their families, cancer impacts the entire family.  So, having people come into your life that just love you in the midst of your pain and suffering is a very powerful thing.  So, that night in that hotel room, along with all those teammates coming in, those five or six guys that hung out with me until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning were like a breath of fresh air, a gift from God in comforting me in the midst of a very difficult place.  We were really hungry.  All of us were hungry because I had to leave the ballpark, so I didn’t get to eat the postgame meal at the ballpark.  A funny part of the story is that Scotty Garrelts grabbed a cab and went to the first restaurant he saw, and it was a Burger King.  I swear, he must have spent $300 on burgers because he came back with more burgers than any of us could eat, but we were so grateful that we had a whole bed full of food, burgers and fries to munch on while we were sitting there fellowshipping over what God was doing with my story.  It was that conversation, it wasn’t, “Gosh, Dave, are you okay?  This is horrible, I can’t believe it.  Your career could be over.”  It’s like the disciples were in the boat when the storm hit and Jesus was sleeping, and people were so panicked, they woke Him up and he calms the waters and the winds and the next thing you hear in the conversation with the disciples is that they were awestruck and wondered, “Who is this?”  That’s what it felt like in that room with Jesus using these men to calm the storm that was going on in my life.  I share all of that with you because as all of them left and I was about to go to bed, Atlee Hammaker stopped and said, “Don’t you want to take one of those pain pills before you go to sleep?”  Bruce, from the time I had broken my arm, to the x-rays at the hospital to the prescription of the drugs, the conversation that lasted until 2:00 in the morning, I had had no pain medication.  None.  Finally, I decided to take one to get to sleep, and then that morning, got up early and had a press conference which was amazing in and of itself.  I am in the suite of Al Rosen, the president of the Giants, and they are all staring at me, and nobody is asking me anything.  I think maybe the reporters were overwhelmed because my arm was in a sling, and they had just seen something horrific happen and it looked like my career had come to an end.  Anyway, one of the reporters says, “Dave, where is your God now?”  I was overwhelmed with the question, because all too often you see in the world of sports, and I am not saying this is wrong, but we are always pointing upward and giving glory when there is success.  I did the same thing when I was in the comeback game.  I made it clear that I wanted to thank my Lord and savior, Jesus, for the opportunity to be back in the mound pitching again.  Now, the reporter asks this question, and the thing that was so amazing about that is that God took over, and responded through me, and I said, “He hasn’t gone anywhere.  He has been in my heart through the mountaintop experience, and He is with me in the valley, and now in the valley, just as I trusted Him at the mountaintop, I will trust Him to work my way through the valley, and it will be He who gives me the strength to get through that valley.”  That was very important and pivotal moment in my life as a cancer patient, as one who was in tremendous pain with a broken arm, with an uncertain future, as one who had to face his mortality, to know that God was in the middle of my story, giving me the strength to enjoy the journey, but also the promise that whether I live or die, I will be with Him in eternity.  That hope is actually what gave me strength to move forward in relationship in facing the uncertainty of the future.  It was not friendly to me.  It was extremely difficult because now I was forced to retire.  The cancer did come back, not once, not twice, but three times.  Now all of a sudden, I am going through radiation therapy that weakens my arm to the point that I get a staph infection that then threatens my life and now doctors said it was time to remove my left arm and shoulder.  Then I had the amputation on June 18, 1991.  So, in that span from retiring in November 1989 until 1991, you can only imagine what my journey was like.  The emotional and the spiritual and the physical rollercoaster got steeper and steeper and deeper and deeper, and the highs shrunk, and it seemed like there was a season of life in which I stayed in this dark spot and struggled tremendously.  Did I doubt that God existed?  No.  Did I doubt my faith?  No.  But did I have questions?  Absolutely.  Did I get answers?  To some of ‘em, but not all of ‘em, and I think sometimes in life, you just don’t get answers to the tough questions, and yet the questions begs itself, will I still trust God and the people around me to get the strength to get through this thing.  So, on June 18th, when they removed my arm and shoulder, I actually thought when my arm and shoulder were removed, my problems would be removed and the reality that my problems had just begun because now I was face to face with looking in the mirror and this Zoom call, you can tell my left arm is gone, so that’s what I saw when I looked in the mirror.  “Who’s gonna hire that man?” I asked myself.  How will I put clothes on my kids’ backs?  Who is going to put a roof over their heads?  How am I going to do that?  Yes, I played professional baseball, yes I got paid well, but I was not a million dollar ballplayer.  I was not a multi-million dollar ballplayer.  I had to find a job after I retired.  The fear and despair started to creep in, and then in the frustration of all that, I started to get angry, and in my anger, I became verbally abusive to my family, and I was in a horrible place.  I was barely holding on in relationship to my journey with God; but you know what I discovered?  When I had trouble holding on, I realized He was holding on to me, and I could trust that His gentle caress was going to be there through this darkest moment.  So how was I going to get out of it?  Again, through the love of others, Bruce, I was able to get on the other side, and I am grateful to be able to tell that story now.  My wife and I both went through counseling.  We went on anti-depressants.  We were loved well.  We experienced some wonderful things in the midst of some very difficult things.  That’s why I am so grateful to share my story with you because I know there are a lot of people battling cancer right now who have gone through it, that can say they understand what I have gone through.  I hope my words can help other people get through to the other side. 

BM: Dave, what were some of the things, now that you are without a left arm, that you can’t do and some of the things you can do?

DD: It is interesting you ask that question because I have discovered I am not limited that much at all.  Sure, it would be easier to do things with two hands than one, but when I got to the other side and I was finally healthy, I was learning the art of communication, and was learning how to communicate what was going on inside, instead of stuffing it and becoming angry.  So, what can I do?  I played golf, and I still do that.  I went out and tried to play golf.  I didn’t score very well, but one of the things I loved about playing golf was getting on a 40-acre piece of land, and it’s beautiful.  Then you go with three other guys who are good friends and have a really good time.  That to me, with those friends, was priceless.  That time was priceless.  So, I have really enjoyed playing golf, but I had to stop because I developed arthritis with all the stress I was putting on the arm.  But after shoulder replacement surgery, doctors tell me I can play golf again.  I also enjoy fishing, and I am not a big fisherman, but it is a challenge.  I mean, how can you catch fish with one arm?  So, I loved that challenge.  So, anything that threw a challenge in front of me because of my ‘limitations,’ I had to try.  I love to snow ski.  It is much more difficult without a leg.  I get that.  Losing an arm, balance is critical on the ski slope.  We lived in Colorado for 19 years, so during that time, we were up in the mountains every year skiing, and the kids learned to ski there, and we just had a wonderful time doing that. This is my way of saying I don’t feel limited, even though I only have one arm, and I am extremely grateful for the new doctors God brought into my life to do the shoulder replacement because their expertise in doing what they do to fix this right arm that I am going to be able to do those things I like to do. 

BM: You have talked about your cancer journey, and you have also incorporated another journey, your spiritual journey and it seems like the two of them come together with the ministry you have now, the Endurance Foundation.  Can you tell us a bit about its genesis and what it is doing now?

DD: Yes.  It originally started as an opportunity because the Giants had Dave Dravecky Day and they were selling some articles related to my comeback story, and so as a result of that, they said from the sale of those items, they would donate to the charity of my choice.  What we did was, we set up a foundation, the Dave Dravecky Foundation for them to give the funds to, and that it would allow me to give it wherever I wanted.  What I didn’t know was once we had set up that foundation, during the time of my comeback, I was receiving literally tens of thousands of pieces of mail, to the point where we were overwhelmed with army gunny sacks that were being stacked in my garage, I couldn’t park my car.  When we set up the foundation, it gave us a vehicle through which we could start responding to all the mail.  There were people who were sharing their stories of pain and suffering, and so Endurance, with Jan and Dave Dravecky was birthed out of those people sharing their stories with us, and our desire to encourage them.  From there, what we did, we started publishing our story, and we had ‘Comeback’ as our first story, and the followup book was ‘When You Can’t Come Back,” and then Jan and I each wrote a book.  I wrote “The Worth of a Man,” and she wrote “A Joy I Had Never Known.”  Those four books were in essence, our story.  The love of the game, the diagnosis of cancer, the comeback, the retirement, the journey through pain and suffering, the amputation, the depression, the identity crisis, to then, the lessons learned in “The Worth of a Man” and “The Joy I had Never Known.”  So, what we did was, we put the books in a gift box and sending to people to encourage them to tell their stories.  Thirty years later, we had added more resources from others who could speak to the issue of pain and suffering from a spiritual perspective.  We have written more books, and we have written a Bible project to send them to people who are suffering.  For anyone in your audience, all they would have to do is go to Endurance.org and there is a place that they can click on, to receive an encouragement gift box.  Everyone that requests a gift box gets prayed for, and a note is sent to them that says we have prayed for them.  Endurance has been around since 1991 and it is a privilege and an honor to be given permission to be able to step on to sacred ground, and that sacred ground is that person’s journey through pain and suffering. 

BM: And one more time, that’s Endurance.org.   All right, Dave, we are going to wrap up now, and we will wrap up the way we always do, with the following question: If you had a private audience with someone who has been freshly diagnosed with cancer, or one who learned that cancer is a possibility, if there was one message you would like to impart to them, what would be it be?

DD: Don’t be afraid to allow others to enter into your story and to journey with you.  Don’t be afraid to cry out to God for help.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and the thing that we have discovered that has been so important to us, Bruce, is that on this journey, we need hope.  There is a verse I would share with people from II Corinthians 4:16-18.  It says this: “Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  The hope I had in the midst of the uncertainty of my life, with the possible diagnosis of cancer and the diagnosis of cancer, was knowing that because of my faith and trust in Jesus, this verse is real to me, and the encouragement is to not lose heart.  Do not lose heart, and in that process, the people who will walk with you, who will love you, who will help you and will do all they can so that you can endure the journey.  That’s one of the things we have learned in changing the name of our ministry to Endurance, is that this life is about enduring, and it is not just about surviving.  It is about thriving even in the midst of the most difficult of times.  Those are the things I would say.  Jesus loves you, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.  I hope is in Him.

BM: Dave, thanks very much for sharing a message that is inspiring on multiple levels, and as we said at the beginning, we hope that this is a message that has resonated with you.  Dave Dravecky, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us.

DD: It’s my pleasure, Bruce.  Thank you.

BM: That’s going to conclude this segment of Cancer Interviews.  Again, we hope what you heard will aid the cancer journey of yourself or a loved one. So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.

Website…

https://www.davedravecky.com

Ministry…

https://www.endurance.org

SHOW NOTES

TITLE: Dave Dravecky, Cancer Survivor – Mesa, Arizona, USA

Dave Dravecky is a three-time cancer survivor.  He was enjoying a rising career as a major league baseball pitcher when in 1987 he discovered a lump on his left shoulder, late diagnosed as cancer.  It forced the removal of half of the deltoid muscle in his left arm, the arm he used to pitch.  Doctors told him he would likely never pitch again.

After undergoing radiation treatment and cryosurgery, Dave miraculously returned to pitch for his team, the San Francisco Giants in 1989.  On the day of his return, he pitched the Giants to victory.  However, five days later, while pitching, his arm snapped in two.  It resulted in a second cancer diagnosis, this time leading to the amputation of his left arm and shoulder.

Through faith and perseverance, Dravecky has gone on to lead an active, fruitful life as an author, a public speaker and through his ministry, Endurance.org.

Additional Resources:

Website:

davedravecky.org

Ministry:

Endurance.org

Time Stamps:

09:58 Dave noticed a lump on his left shoulder in 1987, which was later diagnosed as cancer.

12:08 Treatment would require removal of half of the deltoid muscle in his left arm.

14:11 Was told his career as a major league baseball pitcher was over.

16:10 Describes undergoing cryosurgery.

17:07 Dave miraculously returned as a pitcher on August 10, 1989, after cancer surgery.

29:20 On August 15, while pitching in Montreal, his arm snapped, resulting in another cancer diagnosis.

38:29 Describes radiation therapy, which led to the 1991 amputation of his left arm and shoulder.

40:42 Dave was overcome with fear and despair as he contemplated his future as a disabled man.

43:15 What he can and cannot do with just one arm.

47:37 Dave seeks to help others through the Dave Dravecky Foundation.

53:06 His message to others diagnosed with cancer.

KEYWORDS (tags):

cancer

cryosurgery

cancer interviews

spiral oblique

cancerinterviews.com

radiation therapy

bruce morton

dave dravecky