News

Published: Monday, March 24, 2008
Organist relies on faith in cancer battle
By MAYA CARPENTER News Chief staff

WINTER HAVEN - It's Wayne Youngblood's faith that keeps him going.

Youngblood has played the organ, as well as sang for the Cleveland Indians baseball team for the last 15 years. But these days, it's not as easy for him to get around.

For the past five years, the former Winter Haven resident has been battling a form of cancer that spreads to different parts of his body and he has little to no insurance to pay for his medical expenses. He's even on the verge of losing his home in The Villages.

The professional singer said he first became sick in 2004. He was working at one the Indians games and had a severe pain in the lower part of his stomach. When he visited a doctor, he was told he had acute appendicitis. The doctor explained to him that he would need to go immediately to Lakeland Regional Medical Center.

By the time he arrived to the hospital, his appendix had burst and he went into renal failure. Doctors were able to help him that day, but his medical problems were just beginning.

In late 2005, he began to have problems with his throat, and in 2006, while he was at the Indians spring training, he started spitting up blood. He went to Winter Haven Hospital and doctors diagnosed him with tongue cancer. There was a tumor on his tongue the size of his thumb. At that time, it was already at a stage-four level, which is severe, he said.

"They said I was going to die," he said. But that didn't stop him from praying and working in his music ministry. Soon after he received the news about his cancer, he was performing at a show in The Villages. He was approached by a person who knew about his condition.

"He said he knew a doctor who could help me," he said.

This doctor, Steven Zeitels, was located in Boston and specialized in throat cancer.Zeitels has operated on celebrities imcluding Steven Tyler, Billy Joel and Julie Andrews, Youngblood said.

The only things Youngblood said was keeping him from going to this doctor were money and insurance.

He had to find a way to raise $25,000 to pay for the surgery. He said that while he was doing another show in The Villages, a woman who knew about his cancer offered him $25,000 for his surgery.

Youngblood said the generosity people have shown him has been God-sent, and that's because he has not given up.

Zeitels performed the surgery and removed the cancer from Youngblood's tongue. Youngblood was told that he wouldn't be able to sing, but two weeks after his surgery, he was singing and eating again. He didn't even take pain medicine.

Though he has people helping him, with the many treatments he has undergone for his cancer, the medical bills continue to get worse. Since the surgery, he has had 33 radiation treatments on his tongue.

"This has devastated him physically and financially," said Terri Sandefer, a friend of Youngblood's.

Throughout all of his trials, he has continued to work with the Indians and said he has used his condition as a testimony to other people.

"Just because you get a death sentence doesn't mean it's over," Youngblood said.

In the middle of 2007, doctors found a tumor on the right side of his neck about the size of a lemon. He then went to the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa for surgery, and in October of 2007, the tumor was removed. During that time, Youngblood said he never stopped working, although he had to cut down to part time.

"I've never left anybody hanging yet," Youngblood said of his performances.

Since the Indians' spring training began in February, Youngblood has received another tumor the size of a softball. This time, it was in his lungs. Doctors removed 60 percent of his lungs. Now, Youngblood said doctors are trying to keep a close watch on him to see where the cancer may spread to. He will go back to the Moffitt Center in April.

Youngblood said he will have to wait for chemotherapy because each cancer is different.

Despite his positive attitude, he isn't sure how he will afford to keep living in his home. But Youngblood said he prays that things will change for the better.

He has donated his talent to many places such as the Family Worship Center in Winter Haven, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Tandem Healthcare and the Hope Lodge in Tampa.

Now it's time for people to donate to him, Sandefer said.

If the Indians move to Goodyear, Ariz., for their spring training as planned next year, Youngblood won't be doing much work. However, he said there is a possibility that he could play the organ for the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland next spring.

"The Cleveland Indians have been really good to me." "It's been a blessing for me," he said.

In the meantime, Youngblood will try to make ends meet every day, but said he knows there is a reason why he is still living.

"Faith," he said.

To donate to Youngblood's cause, contact him at:

Wayne Youngblood Ministries,
P. O. Box 2184, Lady Lake, FL 32158

maya.carpenter@newschief.com.

Organist adds to sounds of spring

By WILLIAM BYGRAVE News Chief

The next time you go to a major league baseball game, try to imagine how it would be without the music in the stands. And think what it would be like without the pleasant patter from the P.A. announcer.

Things would be kind of dull, wouldn't they?

For this past spring training season at Chain of Lakes Stadium -- or in any major league stadium, for that matter -- hearing the organ play "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was as much a favorite tradition as hot dogs, catching foul balls in the stands, or trying for autographs.

Organist Wayne Youngblood and announcer Randy Cimini always have their hands full. They watch each home game from their semi-circular aerie on the top deck of the stadium.

It's up to both of them to make sure there's no dead air in the stadium when there shouldn't be. The music and commentary coming from that little room atop the stadium links all of the plays together and keeps up the fans' interests through however many innings are needed for each game.

Both Youngblood and Cimini have known each other for six years, and to see them working together, one wonders what the Indians ever did without them.

To talk to them, you'll find theirs is a mutual admiration society. Playing the keyboard is "second nature to him," Cimini said about Youngblood.

"Randy is my hero. He's a legend in his own time," Youngblood replies. Then it's "he taught me everything I know about baseball -- which is not much!"

That kind of nonsense goes on between them all the time.

"He's pretty nice, considering who he is," Youngblood added, as he swiped a hand across Cimini's back.

To hear Youngblood talk about his background, one would think he's been in music forever, or so it seems.

"I work with several different groups, and that began way back when you were just a newsboy," he said.

His travels took him to 46 states, doing concerts, but he doesn't go on the road with the Indians. Instead, when the Indians leave town this weekend, Youngblood will be looking forward to doing singing at the Holiday Inn South in Lakeland. He also works with the Lake Region High School baseball team.

Although Jacksonville is his old stomping grounds, Youngblood has hung around Ohio a lot.

"I worked a lot in Cleveland, where there's a big, big booking agency." And he's worked in other places in Ohio that are as far-flung as Painesville or Masillon.

But Youngblood likes Cleveland.

"If it weren't so cold, I'd be living in Cleveland," he admitted.

As for his age, that's something he doesn't really divulge.

"I'm three years older than dirt," Youngblood declared. "I played the dinner music at the Last Supper."

But as far as Chain of Lakes Stadium is concerned, he's been there for about five or six years.

He described his job as being "based on what's happening there on the field. I react, rather than act. You can't be proactive with this."

All the time he's looking up and telling his life story, Youngblood's fingers play lightly but surely over the keyboard's keys. He doesn't miss a beat as he plays the Roland E-70 keyboard.

As Youngblood talks and the music is played flawlessly, he also coordinates with Cimini, who makes his announcements according to a script that shows the exact -- to the minute -- time each announcement has to be made.

People constantly come up to the window in front of Cimini. They hand him all sizes of paper, usually with someone's birthday to announce. He sifts through a growing sheaf of announcements.

But Youngblood makes his job look so easy.

"I had two lessons," he said. "I was outplaying my teacher after the two lessons."

Those who aren't musically inclined may wonder how Youngblood's fingers can dance so lightly and error-free over the keyboard -- and still keep up a conversation.

"It's like driving a car," he explained. "You can talk to someone while driving. It's not a complicated thing."

Even as he explains how easy it is, the selection heard out in the stands goes from a piano to an organ and then to trumpet -- in only a couple of seconds, and with the twist of a switch.

As Youngblood and Cimini trade good-natured barbs, Youngblood plays a song that's quickly recognized as the Mickey Mouse Club theme.

"People from Cleveland like to hear Disney songs," he added.

Perched on a ledge above the keyboard is a machine that's labeled "Instant Replay." Youngblood's fingers nimbly type in a numerical code on "Instant Replay's" keyboard to dig up a wide variety of sound effects.

One sound is a baby crying. A mistake on the diamond prompted Youngblood to switch on that sound.

"Ladies and gentlemen that was Wayne Youngblood at the keyboard," booms out Cimini to the stadium crowd.

"Randy is paranoid when I do stuff like that," Youngblood explained.

There are plenty of other sounds, which include the sound of a window breaking, that's keyed when a fly ball heads out over the stadium. Also available are the sound of bombs going off or hands clapping.

But an errant ball doesn't always need to be enhanced by sound effects from the keyboard, as both Youngblood and Cimini once found out to their chagrin.

"I got a big dent on top of my truck," Youngblood recalled. "And Randy's tail light got hit."

Youngblood hopes to soon introduce a new sound -- Homer Simpson's "Doh!" -- if the Indians don't do something well.

Just as any variety of sound is available, so any type of music -- whether it's a tune or an instrument such as an organ or trumpet -- comes from the Roland keyboard.

But what makes the Roland E-70 different?

"It's mine," he said.

But the music that emanates from it belongs to the fans.

Youngblood said the most requested pieces are the polkas, and that's something he gets to play every day.

"The fans also like the Charlestons and the marches," he added. There's always that daily, traditional favorite, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

And a baseball game wouldn't be the same without the "Charge!" Youngblood's Indians version is done with a trumpet.

For Youngblood, that comes into play "when the Indians are in an aggressive mode and scoring is imminent, and we get the audience going."

As any fan knows, spring training is the best time to collect autographs, so one can say, "I knew him when..."

But the players aren't the only ones whom autograph hunters seek.

Youngblood is frequently surprised, as "I park in back where the players are. People come up and ask me for my autograph. I tell them I'm the organist, not a player. But they want my autograph anyway. I've also been asked for my pictures and also I'm asked if I sell any tapes -- which I'm thinking about doing."

With the Indians' final Winter Haven game of the year today, uncooperative weather hasn't been a problem this year. But Youngblood and Cimini can remember back to the days when they were in the press box before they worked in an enclosed space.

At its stadium-top location, the press box was more exposed to the elements.

"We used to be outside, but you wouldn't believe how cold it could get with the prevailing wind," Youngblood recalled. "But it would be nice and warm out in the field."