Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Blind-sided by pain cont.

It has been a week since my surgery and I can finally type without any stiffness or pain shooting down my arm. I can still feel where they repaired the UCL tendon, but that will subside soon enough. It is a good thing that I can begin to type because school at Vanderbilt University started today. Not too fun walking around campus with my arm in a "robo-cop" looking elbow brace with every person asking what I did. Most say they feel sorry for me and my usual response is "Shit happens.". Those two words are so true. This leads perfectly into my story...

So as I was saying, my whole focus this summer was to simply throw in the Prospect League in Danville, Illinois. I had recently dropped my arm-angle down in school ball... however, I chose to come back over the top this summer at my orginal low three quarters arm angle. That was one the best and maybe even my worst decisions I have made throughout my life. It was a great decision because I was throwing really well and was attracting attention from Major League scouts. Obviously we know why it was on my worst... insert torn UCL here.

When the Prospect League All-Star break rolled around, I had been invided to throw a bullpen for 10 major league scouts. During that bullpen I threw 15 pitches, 9 of which were fastballs that were clocked between 93-95 mph. After that bullpen, I remember that my elbow felt slightly different, but I gave it no thought and went on about the day. The next time I threw was three days later when I closed out a game. Everhting went as planned and I pitched a perfect ninth while striking out two. However, after that game my elbow tightened up, and it began to swell on the inner part of the arm. Since I was the closer for The Dans, I had to make sure that I was ready to throw the following day. Four days past before I pitched again, but during those four days I was trying to throw threw pain while playing catch. It hurt when I threw, but not enought to keep me from throwing with the same velocity.

Seven days after my 15 pitch bullpen for scouts, I entered a game and began to warm up on the game mound. Finally the pain was too much... I threw a slider and pain shot from my elbow down to my arm. Stubbornly, I tried to throw two more pitches before I told coach that I was not going to be able to perform.

Standing there, on that mound, waiting for coach to come take me out, was one of the worst moments of my life...

1 comment:

  1. I am doing a research project on tommy john surgery(cause and recovery). What was it like when you woke up from the surgery?

    ReplyDelete