San Diego baseball icon Randy Jones has been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy for throat cancer for more than a month, the Padres revealed Thursday via the team’s website.
Jones, the National League Cy Young Award winner in 1976, was diagnosed with the disease in November and began the treatments in mid-December. He said he is 90 percent of the way through the regimen against the cancer, which did not spread to the lymph nodes.
He said doctors told him the cancer was attributable to tobacco use.
“I chewed as a player,” Jones said. “I smoked cigars most of my adult life. I started dipping eight or nine years ago. There’s a link, it’s all related. But I’m lucky because I’ve been told this is a low-risk cancer. Again, it’s in my throat, right above my vocal chords.”
Another Padres legend, outfielder Tony Gwynn, blamed a career-long habit for chewing tobacco for the cancer that took his life three years ago.
Jones, who remains popular with fans, was a member of the Padres’ inaugural Hall of Fame class in 1999.
— City News Service
