Dave Dravecky

Dave Dravecky
Dave Dravecky
Pitcher
Born: February 14, 1956 (1956-02-14) (age 55)
Youngstown, Ohio
Batted: Right Threw: Left 
MLB debut
June 15, 1982 for the San Diego Padres
Last MLB appearance
August 15, 1989 for the San Francisco Giants
Career statistics
Win–Loss record     64–57
Earned run average     3.13
Strikeouts     558
Teams
Career highlights and awards

David Francis Dravecky (born February 14, 1956 in Youngstown, Ohio, graduated from Boardman High School in 1974, United States) is a Christian motivational speaker, author, and former Major League Baseball player for the San Diego Padres (1982–87) and San Francisco Giants (1987–89). He is well remembered for his battle against cancer, which ended his career as his team was reaching the 1989 World Series. He won the Hutch Award in 1989.

Contents

Biography

Early career

A left-handed pitcher, Dravecky represented the Padres at the All-Star game in 1983, his second season, in which he won 14 games. Equally proficient as a starter or coming out of the bullpen, Dravecky helped the Padres to their first pennant the following year.

On July 4, 1987, the San Francisco Giants acquired Dravecky, P Craig Lefferts and 3B Kevin Mitchell from the San Diego Padres for P Mark Grant, P Mark Davis and 3B Chris Brown for their pennant drive. He went 7–5 during the stretch, and in the playoffs pitched a shutout in Game 2 against the St. Louis Cardinals and lost Game 6 by a score of 1–0. The Cards won in seven games.

Crisis and comeback

The following season, a cancerous desmoid tumor was found in Dravecky's pitching arm. He underwent surgery on October 7, 1988, removing half of the deltoid muscle in his pitching arm and freezing the humerus bone in an effort to eliminate all of the cancerous cells.[1][2] By July 1989, he was pitching in the minors, and on August 10, he made a highly publicized return to the major leagues, pitching eight innings and defeating Cincinnati 4–3.[3] In his following start five days later against the Expos, Dravecky pitched three no-hit innings, but in the fifth inning, he felt a tingling sensation in his arm. In the sixth inning he started off shaky, allowing a home run to the lead off batter and then hitting the second batter, Andres Galarraga. Then, on his first pitch to Tim Raines, his humerus bone snapped, and Dravecky collapsed.[2]

The Giants won the National League pennant in 1989 (defeating the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS in five games), and in the post-game celebration, Dravecky's arm was broken a second time when running out to the mound to celebrate.[4] A doctor examining Dravecky's x-rays noticed a mass in his arm. Dravecky's cancer had returned, ending his career. Eighteen days later, Dravecky retired from baseball, leaving a 64–57 record with 558 strikeouts and a 3.13 ERA in 1,062⅔ innings. He won the 1989 Willie Mac Award honoring his spirit and leadership.

Retirement and later career

After two more surgeries, his left arm continued to deteriorate, and on June 18, 1991, less than two years after his comeback with the Giants, Dravecky's left arm and shoulder were amputated. Then he went on as a motivational speaker.

Dravecky wrote two books about his battles with cancer and his comeback attempt: Comeback, published in 1990, and coauthored, with wife Jan and Ken Gire, When You Can't Come Back, published in 1992. He has also written a Christian motivational book titled "Called Up" which was published in 2004 by Zondervan. With the help of Tim Stafford, Dave Dravecky saw Comeback republished as a self-titled autobiography for children in 1992.

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • DDOOH — Dave Dravecky s Outreach Of Hope (Community » Non Profit Organizations) …   Abbreviations dictionary

  • 1987 National League Championship Series — Infobox LCS year = 1987 champion = St. Louis Cardinals (4) champion manager = Whitey Herzog champion games = 95 67, .586, GA: 3 runnerup = San Francisco Giants (3) runnerup manager = Roger Craig runnerup games = 90 72, .556, GA: 6 date = October… …   Wikipedia

  • 1984 San Diego Padres season — 1984 San Diego Padres 1984 National League Champions 1984 NL West Champions Major league affiliations National League (since 1969) Western Division (since 1969) Location Jack Murphy Stadium (since 1969) …   Wikipedia

  • Série de championnat de la Ligue nationale de baseball 1987 — La Série de championnat de la Ligue nationale de baseball 1987 était la série finale de la Ligue nationale de baseball, dont l issue a déterminé le représentant de cette ligue à la Série mondiale 1987, la grande finale des Ligues majeures. Cette… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • 1989 in sports — yearbox in?=in sports cp=19th century c=20th century cf=21st century yp1=1986 yp2=1987 yp3=1988 year=1989 ya1=1990 ya2=1991 ya3=1992 dp3=1950s dp2=1960s dp1=1970s d=1980s da=0 dn1=1990s dn2=2000s dn3=2010s|Artistic Gymnastics*World Artistic… …   Wikipedia

  • Eric Show — Infobox MLB retired bgcolor1=#FFDF00 bgcolor2=#3D2B1F textcolor1=white textcolor2=white name=Eric Show position=Pitcher bats=Right throws=Right birthdate=May 19, 1956 deathdate=death date and age|1994|3|16|1956|5|19 debutdate=September 2… …   Wikipedia

  • Hutch Award — The Hutch Award is a Major League Baseball award [cite web title = A Brief History of the Hutch Award publisher = Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center url = http://www.fhcrc.org/about/ne/events/hutch award/award history.html accessdate = 2008… …   Wikipedia

  • Willie Mac Award — The Willie Mac Award is named in honor of Willie McCovey. It has been presented annually since 1980. It is awarded to the player on the San Francisco Giants who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership consistently shown by McCovey throughout… …   Wikipedia

  • San Diego Padres all-time roster — The following is a list of players, both past and current, who appeared at least in one game for the San Diego Padres National League franchise (1969 present). NOTOC A *Shawn Abner *Ed Acosta *Mike Adams *Jon Adkins *Mike Aldrete *Manny Alexander …   Wikipedia

  • San Francisco Giants all-time roster — This list is complete and up to date as of April 30, 2010. This is a list of players, both past and present, who appeared at least in one game for the New York Giants or the San Francisco Giants. Players in Bold are members of the National… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”