Throat Cancer

Dodgers centerfielder Brett Butler has throat cancer and will miss the rest of the season, the club said yesterday. Butler, 38, had a tonsillectomy last week, and doctors found a tumor the size of a plum. A CAT scan yesterday determined that he had throat cancer. He will have surgery on May 21 to remove lymph nodes, and also will have radiation therapy. The survival rate for his type of cancer is 70 percent, doctors said. "My goal was always to play major-league baseball," Butler said in a statement.

A former coach says Steve Williams, who wrestled professionally as "Dr. Death" after a successful college wrestling and football career, has died. He was 49. Former University of Oklahoma wrestling coach Stan Abel says Williams' family told him Williams died Tuesday night in Lakewood, Colo., after a long battle with throat cancer. Williams was a four-time All-America as a heavyweight at Oklahoma from 1979 to '82 and finished second nationally his senior year. He was an All-Big Eight Conference offensive guard for Oklahoma in 1982.

Los Angeles Dodgers centerfielder Brett Butler, who last year lost his mother to brain cancer, revealed yesterday that he has throat cancer and probably will not play again. While undergoing a tonsillectomy last week in Atlanta, his hometown, a tumor the size of a plum was found in Butler's throat. A CAT scan yesterday revealed squamous cell carcinoma, and doctors will perform surgery May 21 to remove cancerous lymph nodes from the right side of Butler's neck. Butler, 38, was given a 70 percent chance of recovery and will undergo six weeks of radiation treatment.

Sean Connery, one of the hunkiest of the over-50 set, confirmed months of London press reports when he revealed on a British TV show Monday that he's being treated for throat cancer. The movie star said he's just completed six weeks of radiation therapy, "and I am fine. " His battle caused him to miss the U.S. premiere of his latest movie, Rising Sun, last summer. Connery, 63, said the treatments weren't as bad as he expected. "I was very fortunate," he said. "I didn't get any of the sleeplessness or depressions.

Imprisoned New York mob boss John Gotti has throat cancer and will undergo surgery soon, his lawyer Bruce Cutler said yesterday. He called the condition "serious, it's life-threatening," but added: "Everyone feels he's going to lick this. " Cutler noted that docs "feel it's treatable, and they're optimistic. " They found a tumor at the back of his throat near his tonsils and lymph nodes. "As I understand it, it was cancer of the tonsils and then metastasized," Cutler said. "It's been difficult to get precise information from prison authorities.

A Montgomery County judge Thursday turned down bookmaker Joseph Mastronardo Jr.'s request to be released from prison and placed under house arrest so that he could receive better treatment for a chronic medical condition. While Mastronardo, through his lawyer, argued that his condition had worsened and that he had been hospitalized twice as result of his confinement, Judge William J. Furber Jr. said he believed the 60-year-old high-stakes gambler was medically "safer" in the hospital wing of the county prison than he would be at his Abington home.

If you don't believe Brett Butler's throat cancer threw the fear of God into ballplayers, consider this one astonishing fact: Lenny Dykstra has quit using tobacco. The Phillies centerfielder, the jaw-bulging epitome of the spitting, tobacco-chomping ballplayer, gave it up during the Phillies' recent West Coast trip after learning that Butler, another tobacco-user, was suffering from throat cancer. "Lenny hasn't had a chew since we were in Los Angeles," said Curt Schilling during a pregame news conference with Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.

Former Mouseketeer Bonita Lynn Fields Elder, 68, a dancer who showcased those skills on the 1950s Mickey Mouse Club and later performed on Broadway, died Tuesday in Richmond, Ind., after a two-year battle with throat cancer. She was 12 in 1957 when her dancing abilities helped her win a slot on the third season of The Mickey Mouse Club. Ms. Elder always went by the name Lynn, but she adopted the stage name Bonnie at the suggestion of the show's producers because there was already a cast member, a boy, with the first name Lynn.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - A 64-year-old man who was killed after walking into a suburban Detroit police station and opening fire on officers without saying a word was a military veteran who had health issues, authorities said Monday. Officers fatally shot Harold Joseph Collins on Sunday afternoon in the lobby of the police headquarters in Southfield, and a sergeant was hurt in the exchange of fire. Authorities were investigating what might have prompted the shootout, which happened on Veterans Day. A preliminary investigation indicates Collins had medical problems, but it is not clear if that had any bearing on his actions, Southfield Police Chief Eric Hawkins told reporters.

We were reminded just how perversely trade, health and culture can interact upon reading the news from Shanghai this week that Chinese men and women who regularly drink green tea have far less throat cancer. Up to 60 percent less, in fact. (Talk about low-tech medicine.) The fuller truth, of course, is that the Chinese are not faring as well in terms of certain other cancers. While they drink a lot of green tea, they also smoke like fiends, a habit that is pushed on them by their government, which runs state cigarette enterprises, and increasingly by ours, which has been looking to Asia as a monster tobacco export market.

Richard J. Young was not, as it turned out, unstoppable. But for most of his 52 years, he certainly seemed to be. Persevering through two bouts of Hodgkin disease as a teenager, he pursued his education until he had a master's and worked his way into a top administrative post in the New Jersey court system. Evenings and weekends found him on Moorestown's athletic fields, mobbed by children. In fall, he coached soccer; in winter, street hockey; in spring, soccer again; then baseball and roller hockey.

Former Mouseketeer Bonita Lynn Fields Elder, 68, a dancer who showcased those skills on the 1950s Mickey Mouse Club and later performed on Broadway, died Tuesday in Richmond, Ind., after a two-year battle with throat cancer. She was 12 in 1957 when her dancing abilities helped her win a slot on the third season of The Mickey Mouse Club. Ms. Elder always went by the name Lynn, but she adopted the stage name Bonnie at the suggestion of the show's producers because there was already a cast member, a boy, with the first name Lynn.

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - A 64-year-old man who was killed after walking into a suburban Detroit police station and opening fire on officers without saying a word was a military veteran who had health issues, authorities said Monday. Officers fatally shot Harold Joseph Collins on Sunday afternoon in the lobby of the police headquarters in Southfield, and a sergeant was hurt in the exchange of fire. Authorities were investigating what might have prompted the shootout, which happened on Veterans Day. A preliminary investigation indicates Collins had medical problems, but it is not clear if that had any bearing on his actions, Southfield Police Chief Eric Hawkins told reporters.

Howard Winig, 71, a real estate broker who leased and developed several million square feet of retail space in Philadelphia and South Jersey, died Saturday, Oct. 27, of throat cancer at Penn Wissahickon Hospice in Center City. During 50 years in real estate, Mr. Winig oversaw projects such as the Holiday Inn at 13th and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, and Lancaster Square Shopping Center in Lancaster. Mr. Winig formed a series of companies, the last of which, HW Associates Realty Corp., specialized in shopping center development in Philadelphia and South Jersey.

AMONG THOSE who will miss Arlen Specter are his comedy buddies. The former longtime U.S. senator, who died of cancer Sunday at 82, released a statement while hospitalized recently that he looked forward to getting back on the stand-up comedy stage. He was booked to perform Nov. 16 at the Media Theatre with 94 WIP's Big Daddy Graham and Joe Conklin . Graham recalls the first time he worked with Specter at the Phoenixville Theater a couple of years back. "I had never met him, but had interviewed him a lot on the air. I was sitting in the green room waiting to go on," Graham said.

ROCKIN' GOOD DEED Veteran local bass player Paul Kurrey is battling throat cancer - without health insurance. The music community is rallying for a benefit from 4 p.m. to 1:45 a.m. Monday at the Legendary Dobbs, 304 South St. Among those making the scene will be the Peace Creeps, the Last Minute Jam Band and the Nick Clemons Band. Plus a screening of the Dobbs documentary, "Meet Me on South Street. " Tickets are $20, $30 and $35. dobbsphilly.com. CURTIS AT KIMMEL Monday at 8 p.m., renowned Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra at the Kimmel Center, performing Strauss' Ein Heldenleben ("A Hero's Life")

More members of the Kardashian Horde have exited the nest to begin feasting on the culture. USA Today says Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner's youngest daughters, Kendall, 16, and Kylie, 14, are joining Kim, Kris, and Khloé's deadly takeover of the kollective konsciousness. The teens have landed jobs as, um, journalists. They've been named West Coast fashion contributors to Seventeen mag. "Kendall & Kylie's Fashion Journal" debuts in the June/July issue and features the latest fashion and beauty tips, the mag says.

Mother Mary tells me on the phone that they're building giant red condominiums across the street from her house. "Really?" I ask her, confused. Her street is a small, quiet backstreet, the last of its kind in South Beach. "Yes," she answers. "I can see it outside the window. New red condos. They're ugly. " "But there's houses there. What about the houses? Did they tear them down?" "I don't see them. " This makes no sense. "And the condos are red?" "Bright red. " I don't like the sound of this, and suddenly I lose my sense of humor.

Albert N. Ruggieri, 84, of Media, a retired contractor who specialized in interior finishing work for homes and offices, died of throat cancer at home on Monday, Dec. 5. Born in Overbrook, Mr. Ruggieri attended Overbrook High School, but not long enough to graduate. Instead, he inflated his age by a year and enlisted in the U.S. Navy at 16, said his son David. During World War II, Mr. Ruggieri served in the South Pacific from 1943 to 1946, working as a soundman aboard the destroyer USS Ault.

It's my birthday, and I'm spending it with Mother Mary, which I know is a gift. But unfortunately, you can't return it. Just kidding. I've said that aging isn't for the faint-hearted, but I was talking about turning 55. Now that I'm 56, I realize how right I was. Older and wiser, that's me. And living with Mother Mary, who's 87, I'm beginning to see what strength is all about. No kidding. Strength is trying to walk forward when you can barely see. Strength is trying to change a channel when you can't find a button on the remote.