Brooks Robinson and the Baltimore Orioles

[BaltOrioles]

I don't know how many of you following Roch Kubatko, one of the Orioles beat writers. Each day he posts stories and updates in his "School of Roch" column.

I'm sure most of us have been following Trey Mancini's battle with colon cancer. Today, Roch talked about several former Orioles and their cancer battles, including Eric Davis and Boog Powell. One story caught my attention and touched my heart.

A quote from Roch's post today...


"The success stories warm the heart.

Joel Stephens broke ours.

Stephens’ colon cancer wasn’t discovered in time. The Orioles drafted him in the ninth round in 1995. The world lost him in 1998, less than a year after his diagnosis.

He was 22.

Cancer doesn’t care how old you are.

Three members of the Orioles family diagnosed with the same form of it in the same year. Unfortunately, Stephens tends to be forgotten.

His tragedy should resonate the loudest. He never had a chance.

Doctors said Stephens’ case was much more serious than that of Davis and Powell - and now Mancini. He was undergoing round-the-clock chemotherapy from doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He’d spend 12 hours in bed each night receiving medications.

If he wanted to become mobile, he’d wear a backpack that dispensed the drugs intravenously.

Oncologist Dr. Ross C. Donehower, who also treated Davis, told The Baltimore Sun in 1997 that colon cancer rarely attacks people in their 20s or 30s. Fewer than one in 20 cases occur in people 35 or younger.

“For the Orioles,” he said, “it is an extraordinary coincidence.”

Stephens played for the low Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds the summer before his diagnosis, when he noticed a dull pain in his stomach, and hoped to receive at least one at-bat with high Single-A Frederick in 1998. He was placed on the Keys roster but never got into a game.

He underwent multiple surgeries in March, just as he had done the previous November, and threw out the ceremonial first pitch before an Orioles exhibition game at Camden Yards.

Doctors told Stephens in July 1998 that he was in remission, but the cancer returned. He died on Sept. 30.

Stephens had left a note for his teammates in the Keys locker room before heading back home, telling them not to worry. The Lord was taking care of him.

Please don’t forget about Joel Stephens. No matter how much it hurts."


Roch this post is for Joel Stephens. RIP Joel

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