Here’s the book on Bob Labbance: He loves golf, he loves the Yankees and he has Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“Hey, at least I have a disease named after a famous Yankee,” says the 55-year-old Vermonter who learned in December he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. “A lot of people don’t know how they’re going to die. I do.”
Author of 16 golf books and a lifelong Yankees fan who grew up in Fairfield, Conn., Labbance is keeping his sense of humor as his body deteriorates from a dreaded disease that, according to the ALS Society, affects about 30,000 patients in the United States.
ALS, which claimed the lives of Gehrig and Catfish Hunter, is a progressive neuromuscular disease that weakens and eventually destroys motor neurons. Life expectancy is usually three to five years after diagnosis.
“Every day I’m on this planet is a great day, but the body is breaking down a lot faster than I anticipated,” Labbance said. “My legs are gone, and I’m now having trouble getting my arms over my head, which was not the case just a couple of weeks ago.”
Bob’s life took a dramatic turn on Aug. 31, 2004, when he was playing golf in New Hampshire. With his golf bag on his shoulders, he slipped on a rain-slick foot-bridge and fell head-first into a water hazard. A good walk spoiled, his head hit a rock and he floated face down in the water.
“I knew exactly what had happened,” he recalled. “I knew I was seriously injured. I couldn’t feel my legs and arms. They were just jangling, vibrating, tingling.”
Fortunately, Kevin Mendik, his longtime friend and playing partner that day, was there to pull him out of the hazard and phone for help.
For days, Labbance endured “total pain” and the fear of paralysis. Doctors performed surgery to relieve pressure on the spinal cord. The 5½-hour operation was a success, and Bob eventually was able to move his legs and knees. Another week later, doctors got him to sit up in bed for what he later called “the most painful minute of my life.”
Despite the pain, Bob kept sitting up. He spent months in a physical rehabilitation center in Colchester, Vt. As bad as that was, he suffered more agony that October when the Yankees blew a 3-games to-0 lead to the Red Sox in the ALCS.
With therapy and a truckload of unpronounceable medications, Labbance made it back to his feet. At first, he had some mobility problems on his right side, but soon he was back in his office writing about golf and visiting courses. A former 8-handicapper, he was thrilled to hit a tee shot 150 yards.
Life almost was back to normal until last spring when Bob began losing mobility and coordination. New medications and new doctors didn’t help. By the fall, he needed a cane and later, a walker. In December, he went to a hospital in Boston, where he saw a doctor who suspected a motor neuron disease, suggesting perhaps it was triggered by a traumatic incident.
“It sounded like something fixable until we Googled it when he got home, and it led directly to ALS links, a very big uh-oh,” says his wife Kathie. “Needless to say, this is a very scary and depressing situation.”
Still, Labbance remains upbeat. He’s just finished off two more golf books that were published this spring – “The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles,” an appreciation of the work of the golf architect; the other, “The Vardon Invasion,” an account of Harry Vardon’s tour of America in 1900.
At a recent book signing in Montpelier, Labbance said he greatly appreciates the tireless love and support of his friends, his wife, and their two kids, Griffin, 18, and Simone, 14. To ensure they get to college, a scholarship fund has been established in their behalf.
Bob never will play golf again. Recently he traded in his walker for a wheelchair. It’s a real task for him to shake hands or to sign his name on his books.
Through it all, he still is rooting for the Yankees. Already, Labbance’s calendar has a big circle around May 3 – a game against Seattle at the Yankee Stadium – and he plans to be there for perhaps one last look at his field of dreams.
And like Lou Gehrig, he will consider himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
rwimbish@nypost.com
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