Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Caring4Cancer magazine. In the fall of 2007, Joe Torre became manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
As the 105th season of the New York Yankees gets under way with Joe Torre in his 12th year at the helm, millions of fans are hoping for a 27th world championship. But thousands of others have a special reason to root for Torre.
In 1999, the world learned that the Yankee manager had prostate cancer, a disease that afflicts more than 218,000 men in the United States annually.
Baseball fans know Torre as the unflappable manager who guided the team out of its 18-year World Series hiatus in 1996 and went on to win four Series titles in 5 years. They see him as the patient, down-to-earth guy who's been able to work longer than anyone who came before him with George Steinbrenner, the Yankees' demanding principal owner.
But there was a time immediately after Torre's cancer diagnosis when his cool, calm demeanor was deceiving. Today, at age 66, he is healthy, cancer-free, and has no plans to retire. But he can vividly recall the fear he felt when he was first told he had cancer in the spring of 1999—same year he went on to lead the Yankees to their third World Series win under his management.
In a recent interview, Torre shared what the cancer experience was like for him, and he talked about the decision process that led to his choice of treatment. He discussed his recovery and his decision to take time off from work, and he stressed that he couldn't have gotten through the first difficult year after his diagnosis without the support of family and friends. Torre also revealed how cancer has changed him and affected his view from the dugout. What follows are excerpts. You can find more words of advice to cancer patients and their loved ones from Torre by watching his live video interview with Caring4Cancer at www.Caring4Cancer.com.
Caring4Cancer spoke with Joe Torre recently in Las Vegas.
C4C: Getting a cancer diagnosis is never easy. Can you share with us how you got the news and what your initial reaction was?
Torre: Every year a couple of weeks before spring training starts, I get a stress test. There's a history of heart disease in my family. During the stress test, my cardiologist takes blood and does a PSA test. In 1999, I went for my checkup as usual, and my doctor said, you know, your PSA is elevated. (Prostate-specific antigen, PSA for short, is a protein produced by the cells of the prostate gland. A PSA test measures the amount of PSA in the blood and is used as a screening test for prostate cancer.)
I felt fine, and the doctor didn't seem overly concerned. He said when you get to Florida have them retake it and see where you are. I had it retaken and my PSA had risen. I went in for a biopsy. The final results came back and I had prostate cancer. You hear the word "cancer" and it's so scary. Right away you think death. My first thought was with my daughter, who was not yet 4 years old. I wanted to be around for her.
C4C: What did you do next? How did you decide on treatment?
Torre: When I was first diagnosed, it was a very frightening time for me. I didn't know how I was going to deal with it. But I knew that I had to do what I had done as a baseball manager. I had to be proactive and get answers. One of my first moves was to talk with an oncologist I knew in Cincinnati. After that, my wife, Ali, did a lot of research. She got books on prostate cancer and went on the Internet. I also called on people I knew who had prostate cancer and spoke with a number of different doctors.
I went with Ali to see a urologic surgeon in St. Louis. Two friends of mine had been operated on by him. I remember sitting in his office and all of a sudden feeling my blood pressure coming down as he explained the surgery and my chances of recovering and leading a normal life. I started thinking that maybe this dark hole wasn't so dark after all.
Torre went on to speak about the surgery, a nerve-sparing prostatectomy in which the prostate gland is removed. He spoke obliquely about the sexual side effects he experienced briefly after his operation, and how he and his wife, Ali, found ways to "still have our intimate moments." He also spoke about the importance of a couple working as a team.
C4C: You took 2 months off after your surgery even though the 1999 Major League baseball season was in full swing. Can you describe what went into that decision?
Torre: I decided I needed to take time off because I was tired. I didn't disappear, though. My surgery was in March and shortly after that, I went and met with my players. I wanted them to see that I was OK, talking, walking around, even though I had a catheter in me. Maybe if I'd been working a normal five-day-a-week job, I wouldn't have taken time off. But mine's a seven-day-a-week job, and most of my games don't start until 7 at night and they run til 10 or 11.
Right after my surgery, I was dozing off by the time 10 o'clock rolled around. I wanted to wait until I wasn't doing that anymore. It took about 2 months. When that night came, I knew I was ready to go back to work and I went back the next day.
C4C: The year you were diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer was the same year you won your third World Series. Looking back on that year, can you describe the range of emotions you experienced?
Torre: The interesting thing about having cancer is when you go back to work, you wonder if you'll still have the fire in your belly. You know in your mind you're facing death, and then here you are playing a game. I remember there was one game in Toronto when we were losing and my center fielder, Bernie Williams, came up to hit, and that was when I realized I had crossed the line, where I was willing to sell my soul for a base hit. That's when I knew that I was really back in the game, that I'd returned full strength.
C4C: Not many people could handle the pressure associated with playing in New York City and managing the Yankees. How, if at all, did the pressure of your job compare with the pressure of dealing with cancer?
Torre: When you compare cancer with managing a baseball team, all of a sudden it puts things in perspective. You know, you ask yourself, "How stressed out should I get over a loss on the ball field?" Cancer changes you. It really changes you. When there is a tough loss (on the field), you put it away a lot quicker than you used to.
C4C: Has having cancer influenced the way you live today?
Torre: I think it's made me do my job better because I feel better about myself and I take better care of myself now. I pay a lot of attention to what I do now. I workout a lot, and I'm on a very low-fat diet. I live my life knowing that if I take care of myself, my chances of staying healthy are better.
C4C: What words of advice do you have for someone newly diagnosed with cancer?
Torre: My advice is first to get as much information as you can about your diagnosis. You'll experience fear. Even though I looked like a cool character sitting there in the dugout, that wasn't the way I was feeling. However, I can tell you, the more information you get, the less fear there is and the better able you are to make a good decision about how to proceed. Another very important thing is support. The support of your friends, your family is so important. Trust me. You can't go through this alone. My wife, my sisters, my brother, just so many people were there for me. You need people to be there for you. If you don't have it, you need to look for some sort of support group.
C4C: You've accomplished so much in your life, as a baseball player, as a manager, and as a cancer survivor. So here's the big question. What's next for you?
Torre: I don't know when, but I know the baseball part of my life is going to be over in not too many years. What's the next project for Joe Torre? I really don't know. I'm looking forward to staying active. Hopefully, I'll stay connected with baseball in some way.
You know, as you get older, time goes quicker, and the fact that I can look back and say, "Wow, it's been 8 years since I was diagnosed with cancer," is great. I guess the greatest accomplishment I've had is that I've managed to maintain my lifestyle and do what I needed to do in spite of cancer.