May is Brain Tumor Awareness Month; there is a baseball connection

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, National Military Appreciation Month, National Cancer Research Month and also awareness for ALS, Lupus, and Brain Tumor Awareness. We will be focussing on some of these on STLSportsPage.com during May.

With it being Brain Tumor Awareness month it got us thinking of all the baseball players who have died of a brain tumor and most of all from the glioblastoma.

According to the Glioblastoma Foundation,  “Glioblastoma is the most common malignant primary brain tumor, and many refer to it as the ‘emperor of all cancers.’ This is because it is a very difficult disease to treat, and the highly invasive nature of this disease causes significant morbidity and mortality.”

Timing of diagnosis and treatment also influence glioblastoma prognosis.  Early diagnosis and early surgical intervention by a neurosurgeon have been associated with a better prognosis.

Former Cardinals pitcher Chris Duncan died at the young age of 38 in 2019 after a long bout with it. He was the son of pitching coach Dave Duncan and was a World Champion. Duncan had been doing radio and was a popular player around town. His mother, Jeanine, also died from glioblastoma in 2013.

Going back a few years, Cardinals fans will remember relief pitcher Dan Quisenberry. Quiz died at age 45, in 1998. Head for the Cure is an organization doing research on brain tumors. For information or to donate in Quisenberry’s honor: CLICK HERE. 

The photo of Quisenberry, shown right is courtesy Head for the Cure Foundation.

And speaking of Quisenberry, his coach on the Royals before he came to the Cardinals Dick Howser also had the disease. Howser passed away at age 51.

Oriole’s knuckle ball pitcher Tim Wakefield passed away from a brain tumor.

The Phillies Darren Daulton and several prominent contemporaries in baseball — including at least three other Phillies who played at Veterans Stadium, the team’s home from 1971 to 2003 — have died of glioblastoma.

According to the New York Times, “Other former Phillies who also reportedly died of glioblastoma since 2003 were reliever Tug McGraw at age 59, infielder John Vukovich at 59 and catcher Johnny Oates at 58. Ken Brett, a pitcher who played in Veterans Stadium for one season, died at 55 of a brain cancer that has been identified in some news accounts as glioblastoma.”

The newspaper was doing an article about Daulton’s death in 2017 and examining if there were any correlations between the Phillies players deaths.

There is hope for those diagnosed with a glioblastoma or other type of brain tumor. Right here in St. Louis, Washington University is doing several clinical trials on the glio and others including pediatric brain tumors.  For information on that, CLICK HERE. 

The Glioblastoma Foundation is learning more about the differences between long-term and short-term survivors of glioblastoma. Their mission is to transform glioblastoma therapy and fund research for new, more effective treatments for this aggressive brain cancer

. Donations to the Glioblastoma Foundation go directly to fund the development of targeted drug therapies for Glioblastoma.

We want to bring awareness to the cause of brain tumors for the purpose of early diagnosis and also raising funds for the much-needed research.