BALTIMORE (BP)–Many baseball fans will spend this off-season watching free agent signings, wondering about the possibility of contraction and contemplating their team’s chances to win it all next season.
Johnny Oates simply wants to live to hear the crack of the bat again, BPSports columnist Tim Ellsworth writes.
The former Texas Rangers manager, 55, underwent a five-hour surgery last week at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to remove an aggressive brain tumor that’s threatening his life. Doctors removed as much of the tumor as they could and implanted a chip for chemotherapy.
The average survival rate for the type of cancer Oates has is about a year. But a close family friend says the surgeon has given the family some hope.
Read more of Ellsworth’s column at BPSports, www.bpsports.net.
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