Rio Hondo College Star Knocks Leukemia Out of the Ballpark : Baseball: Chris Turley makes a remarkable comeback from cancer to lead his team in batting.

The first hint of trouble came two years ago when an unusual number of bruises welled up on Chris Turley’s arms and torso for no apparent reason. Then came the constant nosebleeds and increased weariness.

A hard-hitting right fielder at Rio Hondo College, Turley continued to ignore the symptoms until he bumped his knee against a car one night. The knee swelled so quickly it frightened him. “It was like a big ol’ balloon,” Turley said. “Right then I knew something was wrong.”

Doctors told Turley he had acute leukemia, a blood disorder that often is fatal.

But last week, Turley’s months-long struggle with cancer was a distant memory. He was glaring out at the mound, preparing to bat against the opposing pitcher from Citrus College.

It was the latest chapter in a comeback that many thought impossible. “To be honest, I thought I’d never see him play again,” his father, Paul, said.

Even medical experts were skeptical when Turley, bald and 70

pounds lighter from the effects of massive doses of chemotherapy and radiation, rose from his hospital bed in the winter of 1992 to tell them he planned to play again.

“It’s a bit unusual for a patient to return to play,” said Dr. Warren Chow of the City of Hope in Duarte. “We’ve had only one other athlete in here . . . now in the farm system for the Chicago White Sox, so Chris is certainly out of the norm.”

Even more remarkable, Turley has led Rio Hondo in batting and runs batted in since his return last February.

Turley, given a 50-50 chance of total remission by doctors after he received a bone marrow transplant, recently celebrated his 18th month free of the disease. Chow said Turley has a better than 80% chance of beating leukemia if he remains free of the disease through the summer. “I would be very surprised if he relapsed,” the physician said.

Turley had enrolled in the fall of 1989 at Rio Hondo College as a 20-year-old freshman determined to take one more shot at playing baseball. He had played right field on the La Serna High team that went to the CIF Southern Section 2-A title game in 1987 before losing to Capistrano Valley of Mission Viejo.

After graduation that year, he went to work in the family janitorial business. But he played in recreational softball leagues and wondered if he could still play baseball.

“Baseball was a big part of his life,” said his father, former basketball coach at California High School near Whittier.

At Rio Hondo, Turley immediately made an impact as both a hitter and pitcher. “He could throw 90 miles (per hour) plus and had great control,” baseball Coach Mike Scolinos said. Scouts soon flocked to the Roadrunners’ field.

Turley also showed prowess as a power hitter. He led the team in RBIs, and a majority of his hits went for extra bases.

A sore arm forced Turley to miss the final week of the season in 1991 and he later had surgery on the right elbow of his pitching arm. He was in the process of rehabilitating the arm when the leukemia struck.

He entered the City of Hope in August, 1991, for chemotherapy treatments. His hair fell out in clumps. He received another five-week round of chemotherapy that fall. His weight dropped to 140 pounds.

“I had the hardest time watching him sit there and suffer,” said his father. “I couldn’t even tell him what to do. He was just taking it and hardly complaining.”

Turley said he tried to maintain a good attitude in the hospital. “I wasn’t always positive, but I was so determined to beat it,” he said.

Turley received the bone marrow transplant in December, 1991. He returned to his Whittier home in mid-February, 1992.

Later he contacted Scolinos and told him he would re-enter college that fall.

“I kept an open mind to it, but I just didn’t know how it would work,” the coach said.

Despite extensive workouts, Chris Turley showed up for practice last fall 15 to 20 pounds underweight. But on his first at-bat in a scrimmage game he slugged a home run. If there was ever a doubt about his comeback, it was erased on that one swing, said Paul Turley, who watched with tears in his eyes as the ball sailed over the fence.

“A lot of people thought that he would come out for the team and stink and ride the bench,” Scolinos said. “Not hardly.”

Turley has the best throwing arm on the team, although he no longer pitches, and exhibits good range in the field. In the game against Citrus last week, he made an over-the-shoulder catch in front of the right field fence on a ball that appeared to be headed for extra bases.

About half of his hits this year have been doubles and he has maintained a batting average of .340 to .350 most of the season. He is making plans to play next season at one of several colleges that have shown an interest in him.

Turley sees a need to enjoy life as it comes.

“When you are sick time seems to go by so slowly,” he said. “Now it passes so fast.”

And you never know, he said, when you might get your last at-bat.