Baseball a 'sanctuary' for Liggett coach Dan Cimini after heart attack

Grosse Pointe Woods? Dan Cimini's Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett baseball team won the state title last year.

But that's not what he remembers most about 2011.

Life is what he remembers.

Cimini was given a second chance, surviving a massive heart attack.

"I wake up in the morning and say a prayer," said Cimini, whose team hosts the Division 4 regional Saturday. "Baseball has helped me. This is my sanctuary. It's relaxing for me. I could do this the rest of my life."

But that almost ended.

Cimini, who's 43, never has been a smoker.

He'd never had a heart attack, and never thought he would despite a family history. Ten years ago, his father, Dr. Danato Cimini, underwent successful bypass surgery ? and is doing fine.

But looking back, Cimini said the symptoms were there.

"During the (state) playoffs, I didn't feel right," he said. "I had all these emotions going through me. Sometimes I'd get sick. After a win everybody would be smiling, laughing, jumping up and down. Not me. I just didn't feel good."

He couldn't pinpoint the problem, but it was stress. Most of it was self-imposed, and the build-up took years to manifest.

After the season ended, Cimini said he felt fine. So much so that he coached a summer league program without incident.

But time was ticking.

"The last week of October, I was with a friend at a mall," Cimini said. "And I said my left arm was tingling and I started to ache. So we left and I took some antacids that night and didn't think anything about it."

The next day, however, Cimini experienced intense pain in his chest and realized he was having a heart attack.

"I sprinted to the car," he said. "I ran inside Beaumont (Hospital in Grosse Pointe) and I'm yelling at the docs, 'I'm having a heart attack!' The pain was intense. On a scale of 1-10, it was 100.

"The docs said to calm down, that I was having a heart attack. ? They found 100 percent blockage in the main (left coronary artery, aka, the widow-maker). They gave me something to dissolve the blockage, and when it cleared it, was like an elephant was lifted off my back."

But Cimini wasn't out of danger.

Twice, his heart stopped, and twice, an electric shock was administered.

"It was scary," he said. "The doc said that 99.9 percent of the people die when they have that much blockage."

It was a life-changing experience.

He no longer drinks pop ? Mountain Dew was his favorite.

He lost 20 pounds.

He added more vegetables to his diet ? but still enjoys pizza.

"I just put vegetables on it," he said.

And now, as University Liggett goes for a repeat, Cimini is more relaxed but still retains the fire.

"Last year was stressful," he said. "We had fun last year but it was different. I felt we needed to win a state title. We needed to get over the hump.

"I put too much pressure on myself."

tom.markowski@detnews.com

(313) 223-4633

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