September 22-September 28, 2014
Tides' Wheat Has Bone Cancer
Rookie's career possibly over
ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Tides have lived a rough couple of seasons here in the PBL as an expansion team. But the latest blow far transcends baseball, as the team solemnly announced today that further examination of the injured Zack Wheat has yielded a devastating result.
"It is with great sadness that the St. Louis Tides organization reports that young outfielder Zack Wheat, who has been injured since June with a broken elbow, has been diagnosed with bone cancer and will soon begin chemotherapy," general manager Javier Tapian announced today to a stunned press corps.
"While Zack is in good spirits and doctors are optimistic about his long-term recovery, baseball is obviously a long way from consideration," Tapian said.
Wheat went down with a fractured elbow crashing into New Orleans catcher Fred Carroll on June 14. The collision didn't look severe, but it was thought of at the time as simply a bad break. However, as Wheat's injury has lingered and recovery has been slow, he underwent tests for further evaluation this week. What was thought to be a calcified mass regrettably turned out to be something else.
"This kid has all the promise in the world," manager Joe McCarthy said. "He had a five-hit game his first week in the bigs, was hitting .350 when he went down. To get this news is sad...just very, very sad."
Wheat was taken in the third round of last November's draft and was a quick sparkplug for St. Louis. He did not attend the news conference this afternoon.
As for his future, it's hard to speculate. But one source close to the Tides who didn't want to be named indicated Wheat's career is likely over.
"There's a fragility to the bone, we're told," the source said. "Even if treatment goes as well they hope and the cancer's wiped out, there will still be weakness. To ask him to come back from this is a lot to ask."
Tides management has indicated Wheat will be given all the time he needs to decide his future.