Dravecky Will Have Left Arm Amputated

Dave Dravecky, the former San Francisco Giant pitcher who overcame cancer in his left arm to pitch again, will have the arm amputated because of a recurrence of the cancer.

According to Dr. Murray Brennan, chief of surgery at New York Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dravecky will undergo the amputation Tuesday.

“It is likely that the cancer has recurred in Dave’s arm,” Brennan said in a statement Wednesday. “But regardless, the course of treatment (amputation) is required.”

According to the statement, recurring staph infections and pain are other reasons for the amputation. His former San Francisco Giant teammates reportedly noticed that Dravecky was in pain when he visited them in Pittsburgh last week.

“My wife, Jan, and I are at peace right now,” Dravecky, 35, said in a statement. “We know that there is a reason for everything. This is for the best. Life goes on.

“My goal is to be back on the lecture circuit by mid-July, and I will continue with my life just as before. My thanks to everyone for their prayers.”

Dravecky was not available for further comment, as phone calls to his Youngstown, Ohio, home were answered by a machine.

Dravecky is best known for miraculously winning a game for the Giants on August 10, 1989, only 10 months after undergoing surgery for a cancerous tumor in his left arm.

In that game he pitched seven shutout innings against the Cincinnati Reds even though doctors had removed 50% of the muscle in the pitching arm during surgery.

Five days later, however, the arm broke while he was throwing a pitch against the Montreal Expos, and Dravecky never pitched again.

He retired at the end of the 1989 season after breaking the arm a second time when he was caught in a crush of teammates celebrating the Giants’ victory over the Chicago Cubs in the National League championship series.

During that winter, he wrote an inspirational book about his comeback, and spent much of his time since then giving speeches about that comeback.

But he had also undergone two more operations since his retirement. As recently as last December, before a speaking engagement in Southern California, Dravecky expressed worry about amputation.

“They could possibly have to amputate my arm,” Dravecky said at the time. “We’ve tried everything else. There could be no other choice. I know I am not healed, and I don’t know when I will be healed. I know I might not ever know.”

At the time, Dravecky said he had braced himself for a possible amputation.

“Amputation is something I have already accepted, I am very much prepared,” Dravecky said. “If doctors say they are strongly considering amputation, I will say, ‘Fine, get it off, get rid of it.”