Article updated: 1/4/2012 1:18 PM

Wheeling umpire plows ahead, fights cancer

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Posing at Miller Park, from left, are Jeff Siegel, Bill Orris and Dave Pluda, a longtime area high school umpire who is battling colon cancer. A benefit will be held Jan. 16 for Pluda.

COURTESY OF JEFF SIEGEL

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Dave Pluda, a Wheeling resident and fixture on the local baseball scene for more than two decades, went into the ER for what he thought was a bladder infection. But, by the end of the day, after a series of tests, he was told the three words no one wants to hear: You have cancer. “Right away, you think the worst. I immediately started thinking, ‘Why me?' But then I quickly looked at it that I only have one choice: to fight it," he said.