Lifelong Phillies fan in need of kidney transplant making pitch to Philadelphia to help save his life

By Krystle Rich

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    PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — One lifelong Philadelphia Phillies fan is making a pitch to the city to help save his life. AJ Tantala, a 25-year-old from Langhorne, Pennsylvania, is hoping people look up and feel inspired to go to bat for him.

Tantala has two big passions in life: theater and the Phillies.

“I just had this attitude growing up, ‘Oh, it’s not for me, you can’t do that, it’s not cool,'” Tantala said. “Later in high school, I got involved in it, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences.”

“He was born, and I knew from Day 1 that he would be involved in theater arts,” Penny Tantala, AJ’s mother, said. “I knew it.”

AJ Tantala even found a way to merge his passions in a Cinderella play.

“I turned around, did a big reveal, and there was my Phillies jersey,” he said. “I think it was the biggest standing ovation of the show.”

Beneath his well-versed life lies enormous health issues. Born with posterior urethral valve syndrome, he suffered from kidney failure when he was 2 years old, with an emergency surgery resulting in kidney disease.

“Why can’t it be me and not him?” Penny Tantala said. “You never want to see your kids hurt in any way.”

“For the first 22 years of my life, I was just naive to it,” AJ Tantala said. “I was ignoring it.”

He was no longer able to ignore it about three years ago when his condition worsened. His kidney function was plummeting to about 10%, making the need for a transplant inevitable.

“We’ve had 19 different people come forward and try to be donors for him,” Penny Tantala said. “There’s some small medical condition that would prohibit them from being a donor.”

In his urgent search for a kidney donor, AJ Tantala has placed six billboards across the Delaware Valley, featuring the Phillies’ font and a photo of himself at opening day.

“I love the Phillies. I know so many people out there do too,” AJ Tantala said. “I thought if I went that route, it wouldn’t just reach more people but the hearts of a lot more people.”

A kidney donor would not only give a vital organ but also a chance at his biggest dream: a normal life with the ones he loves.

AJ Tantala is recently engaged to a teacher who also loves theater, but he hasn’t been able to perform for over two years now.

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