SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) – On Tuesday night, the voice of the San Diego Padres, Ted Leitner, returned to the radio booth just weeks after a cancer scare.
On May 29th, Leitner tweeted that he had cancer and was leaving the booth indefinitely. Doctors had found what they believed to be a cancerous tumor in his kidney. Four days ago, Leitner announced he had undergone low-grade cancer surgery to remove a golf ball size tumor. The tumor had a 95% cancer probability, but ended up being benign.
Judy Mandel, a Padres fan, said she was “very relieved to hear that he is going to continue coming and being part of Padres baseball and our family’s lives.”
Known as Uncle Teddy, Leitner has been with the Padres since 1980 and rarely missed a series. Before Tuesday’s game against the Oakland A’s, the Padres tweeted a video welcoming Uncle Ted back.
The 71-year-old said he believes it was the thoughts and prayers from fans that got him through the scare. He will return will return to Petco on Wednesday for the game against the A’s, but MLB.com reported he would not be traveling for the next road game series in San Francisco and Texas.
Leitner was a sportscaster for KFMB, then the San Diego Padres and San Diego State University’s Aztecs.
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