He has been in ache for therefore lengthy, however that ache is slowly subsiding.
He has been silenced for almost a yr, however he lastly seems like shouting.
A day after Los Angeles was rejoicing over the arrival of the World Sequence, a voice of town was celebrating two totally different phrases.
Most cancers remission.
Dodgers broadcasters Charley Steiner, left, and Rick sit collectively at Dodger Stadium. Steiner has missed this season whereas battling most cancers.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Instances)
He discovered that his a number of myeloma blood most cancers was in remission.
“Remission is a beautiful word,” he stated this week. “Monday was one of those days where it was like, OK, we’re good.”
For almost a yr, for the 20-year announcer who has grow to be a fixture on Southland radios, it has been dangerous.
The illness, which Steiner had not publicly revealed till now, saved him off the air for all the season whereas quietly ravaging his world.
He endured fixed debilitating decrease again ache. He misplaced 50 kilos. He was confined to a wheelchair. He initially moved his mattress from the second flooring of his Westside residence right down to the household room as a result of he couldn’t climb the steps. He enlisted the full-time assist of nurses. It wasn’t fairly.
“He’s gone through hell,” stated his longtime radio associate Rick Monday
An especially personal individual, Steiner lived the nightmare with out fanfare, with out telling anybody exterior of his inner-circle, the loquacious storyteller maintaining his most necessary phrases to himself.
Dodgers radio broadcaster Charley Steiner’s most cancers is in remission.
(Alberto E. Rodriguez / Los Angeles Instances)
“He did not want to be the story,” stated Monday. “I can’t imagine how challenging it has been for him.”
That problem grew to become much more insufferable as soon as the World Sequence matchup was set between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
Steiner and the legendary Purple Barber are the one two announcers who’ve labored for each groups, as Steiner was the Yankees broadcaster for 3 years earlier than becoming a member of the Dodgers in 2005.
Steiner is the person in the course of this matchup however, apart from a scheduled brief go to to Dodger Stadium for Recreation 1, he received’t be wherever close to it.
ESPN reporter Charley Steiner interviews Yankee Scott Brosius after a win over the San Diego Padres at Qualcomm Stadium in 1998.
(V.J. Lovero / Sports activities Illustrated/Getty Pictures)
“It’s been really weird and tough watching the Dodgers and the Yankees,” Steiner stated. “I broadcast both of them, yet I can’t do either of them.”
Bizarre and hard describes the final yr for Steiner, 75, who started struggling again pains in November. After two months of testing, in January he was recognized with a number of myeloma most cancers and commenced remedy at Metropolis of Hope.
Initially he thought he might hold working. Even when the again ache grew to become insufferable and it was clear he would miss the beginning of the season, he thought he would enhance sufficient to ultimately return. Actually, within the spring he issued a press release by the staff that he would miss a while whereas recovering from three again fractures, however anticipated to be again, “later this season.”
“But it hurt,” he stated. “It hurt bad.”
The ache in the end landed him within the hospital for 10 days, and he spent the summer time watching video games from his household room mattress whereas attempting to maintain the religion.
“I’ve had incredibly mixed emotions, I should be there, I wanna be there, I’ve been there 20 years, but these are the cards I’ve been dealt,” he stated. “This year was supposed to be so great, I turned 75, it’s my 20th with the Dodgers … but it’s been a pain in the ass.”
The Dodgers have visited and referred to as and been supportive of Steiner by his secret sickness, and haven’t any plans to switch him.
“He’s part of our family, we care about him, we’ve been through this journey with him, we’re here to support him,” stated Lon Rosen, Dodger vice chairman and chief advertising officer. “And yes, we expect him back next year.”
Quickly, although, his clean and lyrical patter offered him on most Dodger followers, an old-school baseball man with a poetic bent. He grew to become such a trusted voice, it’s a recording of Steiner that formally welcomes followers to Dodger Stadium.
”It is rather tough to do, to make it sound like a pal is speaking to you, however that’s what he does,” stated Monday. “He makes it sound easy but it’s not.”
Steiner by no means needed to exchange Vin Scully — that activity fell to Joe Davis — so he was capable of work out the kinks and set up himself with out a lot fanfare and at present, he and Monday have grow to be the venerable cornerstones of the Dodger broadcast staff.
It was Steiner who was the voice of the back-to-back-to-back-to-back residence runs, the voice of Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter, the distant voice of the 2020 championship. Throughout the Covid yr, you’ll bear in mind, Steiner broadcast the video games from his front room.
“It’s so funny, I would broadcast Brooklyn Dodger games from my living room when I was 7 … and 60 years later I was doing it again,” stated the Lengthy Island native.
As a baby beloved the Dodgers till they moved to Los Angeles, then he beloved the Yankees a lot that he left ESPN and accepted their play-by-play invitation so his sick father Howard might hearken to his work. After Howard died, Steiner acquired an exploratory telephone name from Dodger official Steve Brener, questioning if he could be concerned about making a transfer.
“It most likely wasn’t one of the best negotiating tactic, however I stated, ‘Yeah Bubba!” said Steiner. “When somebody offers you your childhood dream, how do you not take it?”
After accepting the Dodgers offer, he brought his mother Gertrude to Los Angeles so she could listen to his work, baseball being all about family for him, a family that he has sorely missed, especially now.
The Dodgers and Yankees and no Charley Steiner? Talk about feeling left out.
“It’s onerous, actually onerous,” stated Steiner. “The World Series happens to be the Yankees, and they happen to be playing the Dodgers, who happen to be my last two employers.”
He has attended three video games this yr and really broadcast a few innings, however the ache has at all times gotten one of the best of him, and he’s left early.
He’ll be at Chavez Ravine for the primary few innings in Friday’s Recreation 1, he figures will probably be good for him to see previous pals from each side of the nation.
“When I went before, I was touched that people still remember who I am and what I do,” he stated.
However this time he’s there strictly as a customer, he received’t intrude on the radio microphone that might be manned by Monday and Stephen Nelson in the course of the Sequence.
“It’s the World Series, I have to be at my best,” he stated. “I can’t parallel park into this thing.”
He hopes within the subsequent few months he can as soon as once more press onerous on the fuel. He’s nonetheless not strolling, however he says he might be. He’s nonetheless in ache, however he says it’s manageable. He can truly climb again up the steps to his bed room now, one step at a time.
“I’m making wonderful progress,” he stated. “I’m not ready to dance, but it’s getting better.”
He referred to a saying immortalized by his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers, one which he’ll cling to throughout these subsequent two hole however hopeful weeks.
“Remember when the Dodger fans would always say, ‘Wait till next year?” Steiner stated. “That’s me. That’s going to be my time. Next year.”
