As a kid, I wanted Mickey Mantle’s mighty swing. And his blazing speed. And his grace in centerfield.
As an adult, books by and about Mantle line my bookshelves.
So when the doctor said what kind of cancer I have, I did a double take: Did he say mantle-cell lymphoma? Yes, he did.
It really has nothing to do with The Mick. Unlike Lou Gehrig, he has no disease named for him. And, I should note, since Mickey died of liver cancer and blamed his life of hard drinking, mantle-cell is not related to alcohol consumption.
This type of lymphoma gets its name because it originates in the B-lymphocyte cells in the “mantle zone” of the lymph node, according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation.
More on my disease on my Caring Bridge page and at The Buttry Diary. My outlook is good and my oncologist and I are optimistic. But my treatment may distract me from this blog for a while. I suppose I’ll probably blog about the Hall of Fame selections, and I hope to be finished with treatment pretty early in the next baseball season. But if Hated Yankees takes a little hiatus, I blame mantle-cell, not The Mick.
Thoughts with you, Steve! Swing for the fences, like the Mick would do.
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