Baseball Psychodrama:A-Rod Drilled;Gets Revenge Later

Alex Rodriguez,the controversial third baseman for the New York Yankees,was deliberately struck with a second inning pitch by Boston Red Sox pitcher Ryan Dempster in a Sunday night game at Boston's Fenway Park.The game was nationally televised on ESPN.Apparently,Dempster had taken it upon himself to be the enforcer for the Boston fans who had greeted A-Rod with loud boos in reponse to the embattled slugger's alleged involvement with performance enhancing drugs,or PEDs.*A-Rod just stood there looking stunned when Dempster threw the baseball directly at him,remarkably composed despite the hostile act.Umpire Brian O'Nora warned both ball clubs that any further nonsense would result in the offender being tossed from the game.That wasn't enough for Yankees manager Joe Girardi,who ran out on the field,beside himself with anger at O'Nora for not ejecting Dempster straight off.He screamed in O'Nora's face and promptly got tossed out himself.Several of A-Rod's teammates also ran onto the field to support him.*A-Rod got his revenge by hitting a home run off Dempster in the sixth inning,plus two other hits in the game,leading the Yankees to a 9-6 victory over the Red Sox,their bitter rivals in the American league East division.*After the game,A-Rod said the win was huge.These guys have such a great team.Obviously it was a weird situation there.I didn't scream anything at them.Not everybody hates me.I have some great teammates.I have faith in God and a lot of people praying for me.I've always been booed.The key is for us to win games,and we're doing that.*It was A-Rod's 649th home run of his career.He is fifth in the all time home run list,six behind San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays.Many say there should be an asterisk beside A-Rod's career records because he used PEDs at various points in his career.They also feel A-Rod should be barred from the Hall of Fame.The Yankees star is currently appealing a lengthy suspension from baseball for his alleged involvement with a Florida anti-aging clinic,Biogenesis,that reportedly administered PEDs to athletes.*The Yankees have an outside chance at a post-season slot this year,with many having already written them off.The team and its fans hope that the return of A-Rod to the lineup after being injured most of this season will be the catalyst that propels them to the playoffs.

From Cancer To Commitment:Baseball Great Johnny Bench Promotes Skin Cancer Awareness

Hall of Fame baseball legend Johnny Bench,64,who was the Cincinnati Reds' star catcher in the 1970s,is promoting skin cancer awareness for Major League Baseball's Play Sun Smart campaign.Bench has quite a bit of personal experience with the topic,as he himself was recently diagnosed  with,and successfully treated for,basal cell carcinoma,the most common form of skin cancer.It was found on his lower eyelids.
The problem with skin cancer is,you can easily overlook it,just dismissing those small lesions on your face or elsewhere on your body.It often takes a dermatologist to determine just what those bumps,moles or rough patches really are.They could be malignant or precancerous,even though they may not look particularly menacing to the naked eye.At his doctor's suggestion,Johnny Bench had those little bumps on his lower eyelids biopsied by a specialist.When they turned out to be basal cell carcinomas,he underwent highly sophisticated surgery called Mohs surgery,in which the surgeon basically slices off minute layers of skin cells,checking each layer under a microscope until there are no more cancerous cells left.This preserves more of the surrounding healthy tissue.
Bench fully recovered from his January operation,but he wants to make sure others don't have to go through the ordeal of skin cancer.He committed himself to the MLB skin cancer awareness program,becoming its 2012 spokesman and appearing in a Play Sun Smart video with Harlem youths.Play Sun Smart is a joint educational project of Major League Baseball;the Major League Baseball Players' Association;and the American Academy of Dermatology.
Skin cancer is linked to cumulative exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays.It is estimated that 20% of Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetimes.Organizations such as the American Academy of Dermatology and MLB are trying hard to get the word out about this potentially deadly disease.Besides basal cell carcinoma,the other,less common forms of skin cancer are squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma,the  rarest and most dangerous form.