Staying true to his word, a minor league baseball general manager underwent a prostate exam while singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch on Thursday night in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Andy Milovich, GM of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, a Single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, pledged to undergo the procedure on the team's Prostate Awareness Night if the Facebook page of local 10-year-old Fallon Emery got roughly 4,000 more likes. Emery was diagnosed with brain cancer in December.
Dr. Glenn Dangi performed the exam in the team's radio booth as cameras filmed Milovich from the neck up for a feed aired live on the scoreboard.
"It wasn't bad," said Milovich, 45, who had never before had the procedure. "The doc was done maybe 15 seconds into the song. I think my next exam is going to be a significant letdown."
Dangi noted the experience was unique.
"I did exams in prisons for three years and New York City for 17 years, and this was a first," he said.
Milovich said he thinks his efforts could help shed the stigma of a prostate exam.
"I had a college friend tell me that what I did inspired him to get his first exam, so hopefully this saves some lives," Milovich said. "The amount of people, who are either prostate-cancer survivors or people who have lost family members to prostate cancer, who have said what tonight meant to them has been overwhelming.
The team gave out 1,000 foam fingers with blue ribbons on it to men age 18 and older who attended the game.
There are more than 200,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States each year and more than 30,000 men die from it, according to the American Cancer Society.
As part of the team's cancer initiatives, it will have an auction next week to benefit Emery. The 10-year-old, who has been in and out of hospitals all week, watched Milovich sing thanks to a laptop and live streaming video.
"She had a rough week with fever and viruses, so the fact that this happened was really a godsend," her mother, Melanie, said.
Milovich said he passed his exam. As for his actual signing performance?
"I think I need some voice lessons," he said.