‘No crying in baseball’

When Vegas Valley Baseball co-owner Carol Ruegge was 10 years old, she received the devastating news that her mother was dying of uterine cancer.

“They sat us down and told us she had two weeks to live because back then, when you had cancer, it was a death sentence,” Ruegge, 53, said. “That was 1971. Back then, that’s what they believed. If you got cancer, you were dead.”

Only Ruegge’s mother, Patricia, didn’t die of cancer. She underwent chemotherapy treatment and survived.

That experience helped Ruegge — a married mother of three — to stay positive when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2013.

“It didn’t really scare me,” she said. “In my mind, when they said it, I was like, ‘OK, no big deal. They had to have come a long way in 40 years with cancer.’ ”

However, when Ruegge learned she had a stage 3-plus, fast-growing, fast-spreading type of cancer cell, she became frightened.

“They went in and removed a lymph node and (the cancer cell) had a little tail on it. They said it already had started to grow and would’ve started spreading,” she said. “So it got a little scarier as I started treatments and everything, but now it’s been 15 months so it doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore.”

Ruegge, who will soon start six weeks of radiation treatments — after which she hopes to be declared cancer free — initially had a biopsy done after an irregularity was found on her annual mammogram.

That was followed by a lumpectomy and seven months of chemotherapy treatments, which robbed Ruegge of all of her hair and energy.

To make treatments easier on her, Ruegge said doctors inserted a port in her chest for an IV.

“That has been a lifesaver, with as long as I’ve been going,” she said.

However, a week after the port was inserted, a blood clot was discovered in Ruegge’s jugular vein, causing her to spend a sleepless night in the hospital.

“That was scarier than when they said ‘breast cancer,’ ” Ruegge said. “I’m thinking a blood clot in my jugular is pretty close to my brain and heart. But they put me on blood thinners right away and it was all good.”

Throughout her battle with cancer, Ruegge’s spirits have been buoyed by her family, friends and a plethora of people associated with Vegas Valley Baseball, which supplies umpires and hosts baseball tournaments for ages 8-and-under to 18-and-under.

Dave Ruegge, Carol’s husband and VVB co-owner, shaved his head when Carol’s hair fell out and has kept it that way.

Several umpires shaved their heads as well in a show of support for Carol and they also threw a surprise Christmas party for the VVB owners that was attended by about 100 people.

Seven months before Ruegge was diagnosed with breast cancer, VVB raised money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure of Southern Nevada during its first annual “October Slugfest” tourney.

“Because of October being breast cancer awareness month, we just decided it would be a good cause and something we should do,” Carol Ruegge said.

Since her diagnosis, the past two Slugfests — including the one that ended Sunday — have been especially emotional for Carol.

Anthony Panullo, a Foothill High School student who plays and umpires for VVB, dedicated his team’s titles in the past two October events to Carol.

Last year, the 16-year-old Panullo and his friends wore pink “Team Carol Ruegge” shirts in a Wiffle ball tourney they won. On Sunday, after Panullo’s baseball team won its division, he posted a message on Facebook in honor of Ruegge, writing “Keep up the fight! We love ya!”

“To have a young man, who was 14 at the time, come up with that on his own ... Anthony’s a great kid so that was pretty cool,” she said. “That was very touching to have young boys do something like that.”

Ruegge said VVB donated about $4,600 to the local Komen chapter last year and is still selling hats, T-shirts and wristbands as part of this year’s fundraiser (vegasvalleybaseball.com; 702-568-0710).

In addition to the Las Vegas baseball community, Ruegge said she has been supported throughout her ordeal by her sister Sandy, who is friends with multiple cancer survivors; close friend Mary Pat Corrigan, who has sent her inspiring texts on every one of her treatment days; and VVB staff member Julie Grenier, who came up with the idea for selling pink wristbands and lost her father to cancer earlier this year.

“Family and friends like this are the reasons I have been able to keep a positive attitude,” Ruegge said. “I’ve had a great support team.”

Aside from taking a couple days off for her chemotherapy treatments, Ruegge, a former softball player, hasn’t let the disease slow her down.

“There’s no crying in baseball, so I had to just keep on going,” she said.

Ruegge does have one complaint.

“Back at the beginning, everybody was showing up at the house bringing food and stuff,” she said. “After a month or so, I’m like, ‘Hey, I still have (cancer). Where’s the food?’”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354. Follow him on Twitter: @tdewey33.