Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1994 TAG: 9403160114
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Kruk will leave the Phillies' spring-training camp today and is expected to be in Philadelphia on Thursday for routine tests that are necessary before the treatment can begin, team spokesman Larry Shenk said.
The month-long treatment will begin Monday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Kruk is expected to be out of the lineup until mid-May.
Doctors had given Kruk the option of having the radiation therapy or waiting and then checking every two months to make sure he was cancer free. Kruk decided Tuesday morning to have the radiation.
"I figure it's best to do it and get it over with," Kruk said in a statement.
\ CANSECO PONDERED SUICIDE: Depressed over the downfall of his personal and professional life, Jose Canseco considered committing suicide, although the Texas Rangers slugger says he never tried to kill himself.
Instead, Canseco sought professional counseling to pull out of the 18-month depression caused by his problems with the Oakland A's, his trade to Texas in 1992, his painful divorce and an elbow injury last year.
"The last two years were a total nightmare," Canseco told Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Jim Reeves in a column published Tuesday. "When the bottom really fell out was that period from about four or five months after I was traded until about six or eight months ago."
"Sure, I thought about suicide. It crossed my mind several times, but it never got to the point where I sat in the dark with a gun in my hand, or a bottle of pills. It was a bad time, but getting through it makes you a stronger person."
\ REALITY CHECK: Mark Leiter got a harsh reminder that baseball is just another business.
Last week, Leiter went public with the fact that his 9-month-old son, Ryan, is dying of spinal muscular atrophy.
Tuesday, he was waived by the Detroit Tigers.
His son's condition, also called Werdnig-Hoffman disease, is similar to Lou Gehrig's disease, but afflicts infants instead of adults. About 20,000 infants die every year from the disease.
Leiter and his wife, Allison, have established the Ryan Leiter Fund to help those who can't afford to get help.
Leiter, obtained in the 1991 trade that sent Torey Lovullo to the New York Yankees, was 23-18 in his three seasons with the Tigers. He struggled last season, going 6-6 with a 4.73 ERA.
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by CNB