Rizzo Looks Ahead After Cancer: From Arizona Daily Star

PEORIA - Anthony Rizzo was 18, in his second year of professional baseball, and instead of taking batting practice, he was spending time eating.

He drank milkshakes. He ate brownies and his mom's pasta. He enjoyed sub sandwiches delivered from his girlfriend.

It was his attempt to keep his 220-pound slugger's body from wasting away during chemotherapy.

Today, Rizzo is a first baseman and one of the San Diego Padres organization's brightest prospects: a left-handed power hitter who is expected to begin the season this week with the Triple-A Tucson Padres.

He's here now after taking a year off from his career to undergo treatment for limited-stage classical Hodgkin's lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system, which includes the lymph nodes.

"I had no idea what it was," Rizzo, 21, recalled last week at San Diego spring training in Peoria. "I had no idea what chemo was. I thought of Lance Armstrong, his big story.

"The doctors explained everything. They were so assuring to my parents, my mom, that everything was going to be OK."

The survival rate for Hodgkin's lymphoma is over 80 percent, according to the Mayo Clinic. Rizzo said he feels no ill effects from the cancer he had in 2008.

Drafted in the sixth round in 2007 out of high school, Rizzo is considered the best power hitter in the Padres system. His 2010 season proves he's ready for the challenge - he hit 25 homers and drove in 100 runs between High-A and Double-A, becoming a key piece in the Red Sox's trade with the Padres for slugger Adrian Gonzalez in the off-season. At 6 feet 3 inches and 220 pounds, Rizzo produced a strong spring training, and the Padres say they are thrilled about his future.

"Very impressed," Padres manager Bud Black said. "The Tucson fans will be very excited about Anthony. All the things (general manager) Jed (Hoyer) and (assistant general manager) Jason McLeod said about him were validated by his work this spring. I predict a nice, solid career for him."

Read more from Sarah Trotto of the Arizona Daily Star here - http://azstarnet.com/sports/baseball/professional/minor/article_9c202ec9-d737-5ec8-b72a-e1e96db138ba.html