2014 The Year, and Injury, That Changed The Way I Think About Baseball

2014 was a baseball year like no other.  It started off with the normal decisions...what team to play with, where to hit, who we were still talking to after last season.   But this season would be different from all those before it.


This was the big eighth grade year...the last season before high school.  Our original plan was to play a little middle school ball, a last hurrah with school pals and then play with an older team to prepare for Freshman year.  What's that famous quote? "The best laid plans of mice and men..."

In the semi final game of the middle school season, it happened. A freak accident at the plate. Tagging the runner at home, his foot slipped on the plate and the knee, well, went in a direction knees don't like to go.  The pain was excruciating. The waiting to hear the diagnosis was worse. Two weeks and one MRI later, the news was good, sort of.  It wasn't a torn ACL. It was a severe bone bruise that would take months to heal.

The injury was eye opening for all of us.  The knee dictated when and how much he played.  It also helped us focus on what was truly important.  Was it worth risking further injury for a trophy or a ranking?  I know people were angry and disappointed when we elected to rest and not push the knee. After all, we had played almost  year round since he was nine years old.  Realizing health and future goals were more important than a 14U baseball tournament was a turning point for our family.

The big tournament of the year was the USA Baseball 15U East Championship in Jupiter, Florida.  Ten days of the best competition in the country and a chance for the USA Baseball coaches, college and pro scouts to get a good look at the players.  The knee wasn't 100% better, but good enough to head down south to play a little baseball on what felt like, the surface of the Sun.  What an incredible week capped off with pitching 5 scoreless innings against Team Phenom in the Semi Final game at Roger Dean Stadium.  The USA Coaches liked what they saw, an 89 mph on the radar gun. Things were looking good for the trip to Cary, North Carolina and a shot at a spot on the 40 man USA 15U National Team Roster.

Maybe there were warning signs.  Maybe he should have mentioned it, he didn't.  Standing on the mound in his USA Mid Atlantic uniform, surrounded by radar guns and spectators, it happened.  The first inning of the first game,  he signaled to the coach and came out of the game.  Something didn't feel right in his elbow and his dream of making the USA team was over, for now.

We were told to watch the arm.  When the K.C. Royals scout team called, he went ahead and played.  Eventually, the discomfort in his arm coupled with hearing me repeatedly ask, 'how do you feel'  led to another MRI and more waiting...




When a career altering injury is lurking in the background, you begin to look back at the decisions you made as a parent.  Did I fool myself into thinking the more he played, the better he'd be at the game?  Was year round baseball a contributing factor to the injury?  Were the trophies in his room worth risking his long term health?  Surely by now, we've all heard  the dangers of allowing our son's to play year round baseball.  If you haven't, look up the articles by Dr. Andrews, the most famous Tommy John surgeon in the United States, and see what he has to say about the subject.  You may begin to do things a little differently...I would have.

The Good News, no torn ligament.  The Bad News, six weeks without throwing and a slow progression back to pitching when the pain was completely gone.  Let me just say, the pain of the elbow was nothing compared to the PAIN of not throwing for 6 weeks!

Everything is back to normal and some really cool things happened.  He was invited for an unofficial visit to The University of Tennessee, made the Varsity Baseball team at HVA and is going back to Jupiter, Florida for another shot at the USA 15U National Team.

If he stays healthy...

Articles:
Dr. James Andrews

http://www.cbssports.com/general/writer/gregg-doyel/24554338/growing-addiction-among-baseball-players-tommy-john-surgery

http://metsmerizedonline.com/2014/05/dr-james-andrews-explains-spike-in-tommy-john-surgeries.html/