SAN FRANCISCO -- Virtually every member of the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame has been honored for being a big star. Dave Dravecky is entering this august group for having a big heart.

By now, most Giants fans are familiar with the drama that surrounded Dravecky’s final months as an active player. One year after joining San Francisco in a July 5, 1987, seven-player trade with San Diego, the left-hander learned he had a desmoid tumor in his throwing arm, requiring surgical removal of half of the deltoid muscle.

Dravecky resumed pitching in 1989 and thrilled a Candlestick Park crowd of 34,810 on Aug. 10 by allowing four hits in eight innings as the Giants defeated Cincinnati, 4-3.

"It was probably the most emotional game I've played. Ever," Giants first baseman Will Clark said.

Pitching at Montreal five days later, Dravecky's humerus bone snapped as he threw a fastball to Tim Raines during the sixth inning. The cancer in Dravecky's arm returned after he broke it again during the Giants' on-field celebration of their 1989 National League pennant. This eventually required amputation of the arm.

The fortitude, fulfillment and frustration that Dravecky experienced inspired fans worldwide and transcended his 27-game stint with the Giants. He became a symbol of perseverance and a source of inspiration, largely explaining why the Giants retain him as a community ambassador.

“I have no regrets,” said Dravecky, who will be officially enshrined into BASHOF at its induction dinner Thursday night at a downtown hotel. “There’s been a lot of pain, there’s been a lot of suffering, there’s been a lot of struggle. The depression and all those things that come with battling with cancer, losing a career, losing an arm -- all very normal things to experience. But living on the other side of that, it has been a journey of incredible gratitude and thankfulness and joy.”

Dravecky will become the 17th BASHOF inductee to play for or manage the Giants. The others are Willie Mays (1980), Juan Marichal (1982), Frank Robinson (1983), Willie McCovey (1987), Orlando Cepeda (1990), Joe Morgan (1991), Bill Rigney (1994), Vida Blue (1995), Will Clark (2007), Gaylord Perry (2009), Dave Righetti (2013), Dusty Baker (2015), Barry Bonds (2015), Jeff Kent (2016), Matt Williams (2017) and Matt Cain (2018). Besides recognizing top Bay Area athletes, BASHOF, a non-profit organization, supports youth sports participation.

Dravecky, 63, called the honor “overwhelming.”

“To be thought of in this way means the world to my family and me,” he said Wednesday. “So much of it revolves around how wonderful this community has been to us. It just makes it even that much more special.”

The special part began in 1989, when Dravecky launched his comeback in Spring Training. Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow, in camp for the final season of his 14-year career, saw Dravecky approach the clubhouse carrying his equipment bag and was nonplussed, having assumed that his cancer would prevent him from ever throwing a baseball again.

“He walked by and I asked him the question that everybody was thinking,” Krukow said. “I said, ‘Why are you here?’ He goes, ‘I’m gonna pitch again.’ He said that, and I teared up. I just looked at him and nodded my head, and I said, ‘My prayers are with you.’”

To characterize Dravecky’s progress as gradual would be an understatement. But he never quit.

“It was a big deal for him to say, ‘I’m playing catch tomorrow with a tennis ball at 30 feet,’" Krukow recalled. “He took so much joy in it! He was so happy! And then it was, ‘I’m playing catch from 30 feet.’ And then it was, ‘I’m playing catch from 60 feet.’ And then it was, ‘I’m playing catch with a football.’

"This was a miracle happening in front of our very eyes. There was so much joy about each accomplishment. It fed our team. It was energy that we pulled from, from Spring Training all the way through.”

By the time Dravecky defeated Cincinnati, every Giant derived faith from his spirit.

“We were so proud of what he had done,” Krukow said. “We were so moved by what he had done. He made us all believe there was a spirit that was alive in all of us: If you were that committed, you could do anything. That was the miracle of Dave Dravecky.“