A Slugger Leads the Fight Against Cancer

He just didn’t know. Neither did the trainer, nor, it turned out, the first set of doctors.

Something was wrong with Eric Davis’ stomach, and the outfielder had to leave the Baltimore Orioles’ game against the Cleveland Indians.

“It was excruciating pain,” Davis said. “When the trainer felt my stomach, it was extremely swollen. He thought it was a hernia or an ulcer.”

It was May 1997. The Orioles played the next day in Cleveland, then went to New York to face the Yankees.

The pain in Davis’ stomach grew even worse.

“I couldn’t take it anymore,” he said. “I got on the train, went down to Baltimore.”

He spent five days at the University of Maryland-Baltimore hospital, where he was told he had an abscess in his stomach.

He left and went to the Johns Hopkins Medical Center, where the chief oncologist told him he had a cancerous tumor. Davis had it removed two days later.

“Evidently it had been there for a while to get to the size that it was, which was the size of an orange,” Davis said.

Hernia, ulcer, abscess. At first, nobody suspected the real danger. Especially not Davis.

“I didn’t know anything about colon cancer,” Davis said. “I’m just glad that it happened when it happened.”

Because if it didn’t . . .

“I don’t want to even contemplate that, to think of what would have been had I not been diagnosed,” Davis said.

Fortunately, colon cancer is one of the most treatable forms of the disease when detected early. That’s why Davis wants to make sure more people are getting tested.

Davis has enlisted the aid of major league baseball to sponsor “Score for Screening 2000” at stadiums around the country today.

Volunteers will be on hand to distribute information about colon cancer at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Cinergy Field in Cincinnati, Enron Field in Houston, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Comiskey Park in Chicago, Comerica Park in Detroit, Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Tropicana Field in Tampa, the Metrodome in Minneapolis, and with Davis’ current team, the Cardinals, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

At Dodger Stadium, a public service announcement featuring Davis will be shown on the DiamondVision screen.

“You have to think of the best way to get to as many people as you possibly can,” Davis said. “What better way to do that than at the baseball parks?”

Especially because baseball games primarily attract men, and the majority of colon cancer patients are men.

Davis helped one high-profile patient, his buddy Darryl Strawberry.

Strawberry was having stomach pains in 1998, and he talked with Davis.

“I told him that’s what was going on with me,” Davis said. “That’s what made him get a colonoscopy.”

Strawberry did have colon cancer, but like Davis it was caught in time and he was able to return to baseball.

Davis feels the need to educate.

“That’s the whole reason why I’m doing what I’m doing,” Davis said. “It’s not just for Darryl’s concern.

“Over 55,000 people will die of this disease [this year]. Over 130,000 will be diagnosed with it.

“That’s what my focus is, to touch and educate as many people as I can, hopefully get them screened and focused enough that if something is there, it can be detected.”

Individuals with a history of cancer in their family are at the highest risk. A diet high in fiber and low in fat can help reduce the chances of developing the disease. Annual testing is recommended after age 50.

Davis was able to return to the Orioles five weeks after his surgery. In the playoffs that year he hit a game-deciding home run against the Indians, an inspiration to cancer survivors everywhere.

“I hear it all the time and it makes me proud that I was able to do something, that would . . . help [them] cope with the things they have going on in their life right now,” Davis said.

His own life is slowing down now. He turns 38 on Monday, and he’s talking about retiring at the end of the season, ending a career that included a World Series championship with Cincinnati in 1990; 37 home runs, 100 runs batted in, 50 stolen bases and a .293 batting average for the Reds in 1987; and a stint with his hometown team, the Dodgers, in 1992 and 1993.

Even if he didn’t reach the height of potential that had some comparing him to Willie Mays early in his career, he will leave on his own terms--a triumph in its own right.