Giamatti Warned on Day Before Death: Columnist

Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti received a warning about his health one day before dying of a heart attack, the Daily News reported today.

Giamatti’s warning came from a noted surgeon who became alarmed while seeing the commissioner on television, according to a story by Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica.

Giamatti attended a Mets-Dodgers game at Shea Stadium on Aug. 20, and William Cahan, senior attending surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, watched on television.

Cahan saw warning signs of emphysema or lung cancer, then tried to reach the commissioner through intermediaries, including American League President Dr. Bobby Brown, a cardiologist.

A call today to Cahan by United Press International was relayed to the hospital’s public relations department and not immediately returned. The American League said it will release a statement later in the day.

Cahan’s warning reached Giamatti on Aug. 31, the story said. The 51-year-old commissioner died the next day at his summer home in Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast.

The Daily News reported that Cahan watched on a 45-inch television screen as Giamatti brought a cigarette to his mouth. Cahan noticed a “4-plus” clubbing of Giamatti’s fingernails. This condition, in which the fingernails curve up from the sides and in the front, can mean the presence of emphysema or lung cancer. The story said a 4-plus is the most extreme form of clubbing.

The newspaper said Cahan relayed his concern to author Gay Talese, who in turn tried to contact Brown. The two doctors spoke, deciding that Cahan would write a letter to Brown, who would relay it to Giamatti, a former Yale president.

It urged Giamatti to have a chest X-ray and recommended psychological help to eliminate the commissioner’s smoking. Cahan closed his letter thus: “Tell him that although I am a Harvard man, I like to keep good Yalies alive. Please let me know if I can be of further help.”