How St. Dominic pitcher Luke Lang faced cancer head-on, with help of MLB's Justin Turner

Fate brought Joe Fusco and Luke Lang together. Not once, but twice.

And baseball was the common bond.

Fusco, now the St. Dominic varsity baseball coach, was hospitalized in the summer of 2013 after a serious car accident. A graduate that spring of Clarke High School in Westbury, he was preparing for his freshman year at Hofstra.

“I’d just finished my senior year of baseball and was excited about playing for Hofstra,” he said. “I suffered a lacerated liver in the accident, and I was hospitalized for two weeks.”

While Fusco recovered at Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, he became friendly with the nursing staff.

“I had just started walking without pain and one of the nurses asked me for a favor,” he recalled. “She asked if I’d be willing to spend some time with a little boy who was battling cancer, and it was bad. He was only 5 years old.”

Fusco, one of Clarke’s all-time best players and a two-time Newsday All-Long Island selection, slowly walked to the boy’s room unsure of what he’d find. The encounter made him uneasy.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “There’s a little boy dying of cancer and what can I say?”

Fusco said he choked up.

“He had this amazing spirit and wonderful personality,” Fusco said. “He inspired me. He told me how much he loved baseball. I signed a baseball and gave it to him. We talked about baseball and took a few pictures.”

Fast forward 10 years and Fusco, in his second year as St. Dominic head coach, is sitting in his office meeting prospective students who want to play baseball. One of those players is Luke Lang, a sophomore pitcher who was transferring to St. Dominic from Mepham. 

Luke’s father, Rich Lang, asked about Fusco’s baseball background and playing career.

“I had this strange sensation that somehow we knew the coach,” Rich said. “When he said he had a car accident right before college, I was blown away. It was too hard to believe. But it became clear that this was the young ballplayer that spent time with my son in the pediatric unit of Winthrop and signed a baseball for him.”

Fusco said that as they talked, Rich excitedly said, “Hold on for a second. When you were in Winthrop do you remember that little boy you met with cancer?”

"Of course," Fusco replied. "He was so cool. He really impacted me.”

“That little boy was Luke,” Rich said. “We’ll never forget your kindness.”

Luke was enrolled at St. Dominic in the fall of 2023, the start of a brilliant high school baseball career.

The diagnosis

It was March 2013, and Luke Lang wasn’t feeling like his energetic self. His parents knew something wasn’t right.

“Luke wasn’t feeling well,” Rich Lang said. “I said we’ll go to the school, have a catch and take some swings. After a few swings he said, ‘Dad, I’m tired.' He was 5 years old, and I felt that was odd for him.”

After a trip to urgent care, the Langs were told Luke had a virus.

“That diagnosis came on Saturday, March 26 but by Monday Luke became more tired and lethargic,” Rich said. “We went to our pediatrician, who told us to go to the hospital and let them do labs, but everything was OK. Turns out, our pediatrician knew. Unbeknownst to us, Luke had bruises on his eyes, speckles on his face and pain in his forearm. Those were the symptoms.”

The blood tests confirmed the unthinkable.

“They asked us when we noticed the bruises and symptoms. It was becoming alarming. The doctor had tears in his eyes and said, ‘Your son has leukemia,' and I could not believe it.”

The news hit very hard.

"I just collapsed," Rich said. "I never thought I would hear those words.”

Luke's mother, Jeannine Lang, would serve as the family rock as she quickly realized survival was the only option.

“As a parent, the whole thing came down so quickly,” she said.

The diagnosis of Acute lymphoblastic leukemia left no time for self-pity, she said. It put her in fight mode.

“The mindset automatically clicked into, ‘OK, we got this’, Jeannine said. “Keep smiling and stay strong.’ ”

Rich Lang said his wife’s strength buoyed the family in Luke’s fight for life.

“I might have broken down when I was alone at times,” she said. “But never with Luke because I felt he fed off of us.”

The five-year relative survival rate for leukemia is 65%, meaning that roughly 65 of 100 people with leukemia are still alive five years after diagnosis. However, survival rates vary significantly based on the type of leukemia, age and other factors.

“We were told to pray it was ALL and not AML [acute myeloid leukemia],” Jeannine Lang said. “The survival rate was much higher in children with ALL.”

When doctors told Rich the percentages for survival, he remembers his clear defiant mindset — failure was not an option.

“I remember I told the doctor, it’s 100% survival, there is no other percentage,” he said. “This is it. And that’s when our slogan came out, ‘losing is not an option.' "

While Luke’s parents navigated a way forward, he readied himself for his fight to live.

The journey

The path to recovery sometimes seemed lonely. Luke was not allowed around anyone because his immune system was compromised. He couldn’t play catch with friends. He found ways to have his own catch — throwing a ball against a wall or tossing it in the air — always alone.

Luke’s parents both are Nassau County Corrections Officers, and they know all about toughness. For them, Luke’s resilience is unmatched.

“He never let it get to him,” Rich said. “He always had a smile. He never slept in the hospital bed. He would always sleep on the couch because he didn’t want to feel like a patient. He never had a bad day, ever.”

“He would go outside by himself and have a catch with himself because he couldn’t go to school. We never doubted that he wasn’t going to be good. His strength and his resolve changed our lives and made us a lot stronger. There was nothing we felt we could complain about.”

After three years of chemotherapy, Luke was cancer-free. The road to get there was not easy.

“I’m very proud of him,” Jeannine said. “Any kid that beats cancer, there’s nothing they can’t do. He was so positive and worked through everything. There were challenges but he came out top notch.”

Luke believes the experience helped mold his personality. He was thrown life’s most difficult challenge and battled through to become an exceptional student-athlete good enough to earn a baseball scholarship to Division I Iona University.

“I didn't really know what was going on at such a young age, but I stayed myself,” he said. “I just live life, happy. Cancer helped me become who I am. Day in and day out, I don’t think about it. Any problem that occurs, I know that I have gone through one of the hardest things already, so nothing can be that hard.”

Lang is described by opposing coaches as a model of toughness and a fierce competitor.

“He’s the best pitcher in the Catholic League for the second year in a row,” St. Anthony’s coach Paul Parsolano said. “He has an explosive fastball and devastating curveball. But what makes him different is his demeanor. Every hitter knows when Luke Lang is on the mound, they have a tough assignment.”

Major-league bond 

With the start of chemotherapy, Lang realized one of his dreams: getting to Citi Field to meet the Mets. He was on the field during a batting practice session in 2013.

Lang was 6 years old and was an instant hit with Justin Turner, Anthony Recker and John Buck.

“I went over to him and Luke was giving out ‘losing is not an option’ bracelets,” Turner said. “He was going through so much and all he wanted was to be at a ballgame. That really resonated with me. We’ve become great friends and stay in touch.”

Turner, inspired by Luke’s journey, remained in close contact with the family over the next 10 years.

“He kicked cancer’s butt and became an outstanding baseball player,” Turner said. “It’s a tribute to the strength of the family, his parents Rich and Jeannine, and his brother Logan. They met the cancer head on and had a positive mindset as a family. It makes the struggles in baseball look small in comparison. The ups and downs in baseball are minute when compared to a family dealing with a kid with cancer.”

On Justin Turner Bobblehead night in Los Angeles on Sept. 1, 2015, Turner hosted the Lang family at Dodger Stadium and had Luke throw out the first pitch to kick off childhood cancer awareness month. Lang, then 8, did his best Clayton Kershaw impression on that pitch. Wearing a Dodgers jersey with “Turner’’ on the back, Lang fired his pitch to Turner at home plate. The crowd erupted to a rousing ovation.

“Luke is attacking life with no excuses,” Turner said. “He’s moving forward. He didn’t really need the positive affirmations; he had the ultimate mindset. I’ve been extremely lucky to be given the platform to do what I do in the community, reaching out to people in need. We have so many great fans in baseball and that’s why it’s important to get out and give back to the community. I still wear Luke's bracelet.”

'I live every day happily'

The baseball gods that brought Turner and Lang together gave the duo one more gift a few weeks ago.

Turner, now playing for the Chicago Cubs, came to Citi Field earlier this month to play the Mets. Turner was able to see Lang pitch his final regular season game for St. Dominic.

“The schedules worked out and I got to see his last regular season start of his career,” Turner said. “He was great and got to within three strikeouts of the school’s career record.”

Lang would go on to strike out six in a playoff game to set the school record at 164.

“Most guys would want that record,” Turner said. “But he’s such a humble kid and has everything in perspective. The record wasn’t as important to him as was winning. I loved it.”

Lang, a 6-2, 190-pound righthander, finished his high school career with a 19-2 record and a 0.94 ERA. He led the Bayhawks to the CHSAA regular season league title this spring.

“He’s up to 94 miles per hour and has five or six pro scouts every time he pitches,” Fusco said. “Luke treats every day like it’s a blessing. He’s the greatest competitor I’ve coached, and his leadership is infectious.”

Luke doesn’t stress over what’s next.

“The cancer is behind us,” he said. “I live every day happily. My life goals are to give back to the foundations, hospitals and nurses that helped me.”

His message, “Don’t stress it and always believe that you’re going to get through it. Treat every day like it’s your last and fight. Losing is never an option.”

By Gregg Sarra

gregg.sarra@newsday.com@Gregg_Sarra

Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.