Nettles Faces Fight with Cancer

UPDATE 2:15 PM: Nettles will undergo surgery for prostate cancer early next month.

"They told me they got it early," Nettles told the AP Saturday. "It's curable. It's treatable. So I've got to think positive."

Nettles also said he reach out to former Yankees manager Joe Torre, who also had prostate cancer. "He was the first one I talked to," said Nettles. "He told me what he went through, and recommended the doctors."

From George A. King III:

March 22, 2008 -- TAMPA - Cancer has invaded the Yankees' family again.

Former third baseman Graig Nettles is facing April 8 prostate surgery at Manhattan's Sloan Kettering Hospital.

"I was diagnosed the day before Thanksgiving," Nettles told The Post yesterday. "They wanted to do it at the end of January but I wanted to come to [spring training]. They said that was OK because it's slow moving and there was no rush to do it."

A call from his 60-year-old brother Jim with the news that Jim had prostate cancer prompted Nettles to get checked.

"His doctor told him that it ran in the family and sure enough," said Nettles.

Bobby Murcer has been winning his battle, now it's Nettles' turn. And luckily for Nettles, there is a high rate of survival for men with prostate cancer, especially if it doesn't spread, and his is "slow moving."

According to the American Cancer Societ "99% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer survive at least 5 years. Ninety one percent of all prostate cancers are found while they are still within the prostate or only in nearby areas. The 5-year relative survival rate for these men is nearly 100%. For the men whose cancer has already spread to distant parts of the body when it is found, about 32% will survive at least 5 years."

My best wishes go out to "Puff" and his family.