Ron Gardenhire diagnosed with prostate cancer

Well this puts an unfortunate damper on the start of Spring Training.

Former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who took a job as the Diamondbacks bench coach this off-season, revealed today that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Although Gardenhire, who’s 59, was apparently hesitant to say anything because he didn’t want to become “a distraction” (oh Gardy), he obviously has the full support of the DBack’s manager, front office, and I’m assuming everyone else as well.

The prognosis is supposed to be good, however, as doctors caught the cancer early and it is treatable. He will undergo surgery at some point and take a leave of absence from the DBacks.

Gardenhire, of course, spent his entire 13 year managerial career thus far with the Twins, where he won 1068 games—second all-time for the Twins behind Tom Kelly. Gardy won AL Manager of the Year in 2010, and was runner up for the award five times (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009). Perhaps his proudest accomplishment, however, was being ejected as a manager 65 times, which ranks tenth on MLB’s all-time list of manager ejections.

Let’s get that cancer ejected out of your prostate, Gardy.