Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn Has Cancerous Tumor Removed From Cheek
Tony Gwynn
Right fielder Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres sits in the dugout during a game against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1992. Photographer Otto Greul/Allsport via Getty Images
Right fielder Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres sits in the dugout during a game against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1992. Photographer Otto Greul/Allsport via Getty Images
Tony Gwynn, an eight-time batting champion and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, had surgery yesterday to remove a cancerous tumor inside his right cheek.
Gwynn, 51, has blamed smokeless tobacco for the cancer and previously had a malignant growth removed from the same spot in August 2010. Doctors were to conduct further biopsies during yesterday’s operation at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California San Diego.
If the cancer hasn’t spread, Gwynn should be able to return as San Diego State’s baseball coach, the school said in a statement. Gwynn has coached at the university for the past nine years.
Gwynn played for the San Diego Padres from 1982 to 2001 and retired with a .338 batting average. A record-tying eight-time National League batting champion, Gwynn hit a career-high .394 in 1994 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007.
Gwynn has said he used smokeless tobacco throughout his 20- year playing career and twice was found to have benign growths on the right side of his mouth.
In 2010, doctors discovered a malignant growth and Gwynn underwent surgery to have most of it removed. He had more than 13 hours of surgery yesterday to take out a tumor from the same spot, ESPN reported, citing Gwynn’s wife Alicia. Doctors didn’t believe the cancer had spread outside his salivary gland and were expected to perform a nerve graft in an attempt to preserve Gwynn’s facial functions, ESPN said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net
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