Former Phillies first baseman Rico Brogna took a leave of absence from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, where he served as a player information coach since August 2014. Brogna did not really say much when he left the team. However, Brogna is back and revealed the issue: Brogna was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
According to The Orange County Register, Brogna was motivated by helping others:
“I have an opportunity to help somebody,” he said. “Just get checked. I probably would have been the first to say, ‘I’m going to get checked. I’m not going to be stubborn.’ But I didn’t get it checked for a long time. If I had let it keep going, who knows?”
Brogna, the Angels player information coach, said he waited a couple months before having doctors look at a suspicious lump. Once he was tested in early May, he learned he had cancer. He got the phone call in the middle of the Angels’ game on May 8. He immediately left the ballpark to prepare to fly home to Connecticut the next day. He had surgery May 13.
He had been recovering there for weeks, until rejoining the Angels this weekend.
Brogna is part of a long line of Phillies to have suffered cancer in recent decades.
A couple years ago current Phillies bench coach Larry Bowa wondered aloud if something was causing so many players in the Veterans Stadium era to get brain cancer. Former Phillies Ken Brett, John Vukovich, Johnny Oates, and Tug McGraw all died from brain cancer, and Darren Daulton currently battles the disease. Both John Kruk and now Brogna have battled testicular cancer.
