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Don't ever take anything for granted. |
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TheTank United States. Jul 20 2009 22:02. Posts 830 | | |
I don't know how many of you know this, but i'm a college athlete. I'm a baseball player, a right handed pitcher, and i am committed to play at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.
I've always had a love for the game, if you've been playing baseball since you were 4 years old, 17 years, thats what happens. I've grown up in Arlington, Texas, home of the Texas Rangers. Every summer i go to Rangers games, i bleed the Red White and Blue team colors. The best i can relate to most of the people on this world-wide forum is soccer. It seems everyone is very passionate about soccer outside of the US. This is it for me, this is what i do. I go to work, I go to school, I study, I play baseball.
I have a lot of great memories, and i always competed, I always left it all on the field. I was never scared, never frightened, if you were supposed to win, I played harder and made sure you didn't. The best example is when my team was the obvious underdog in a tournament against Waxahachie H.S. We were supposed to lose that game. What did i do? I threw 7 innings and got the win in a 1-0 ballgame. I was 15. Later that year my HS team was playing in a fall league (the HS season starts in february and ends in may). We lost 1 game the entire season, we get to the double elimination tournament as the number one seed and lose in the first game. We win 2 more games and make it to the next weekend, We win 1 game saturday, and then on sunday, if we wanted to win the entire tournament and become city champions, we have to win 5 games in a row. We won two, then in the semi-finals, we had a guy who hit his first and second homeruns of his life. The first one was in the bottom of the last inning and his HR tied the game, sending it into extra innings. His second tied the game again, sending it once more into extra innings. We played 11 innings in that game (regulation is 7). We then beat the #2 seed twice to win the championship. All of this with only 9 players the entire day. Everyone on the team played every inning...When i was 18 years old, on my club team i pitched a complete game shutout in the championship game against an unbeaten team. That was for a national championship. It was one of the greatest moments in my baseball career.
All of this being said, and now i have to tell you that i took it for granted. There are two types of "arms" in this game. One is made of glass, the other made of rubber. Mine is made of rubber. Glass arms are injury prone (because glass breaks). Rubber arms are seemingly injury proof. In my 14 years of baseball, i have only had one "injury" to my pitching arm. My senior year of high school i had a strained ulnar nerve. 3 weeks of no baseball and 6 weeks of rehab and i am fine. As a freshman i threw 40 innings, a sophemore 60 innings (thats a lot since we had like 21 games...about 125 innings in the season) Junior year i was a closer on varsity, and threw 20 innings and then my senior year i was the Ace of the staff, and threw about 50 or so.
Other than the three stories i talked about earlier, every team i've been on has sucked. Really bad. My senior year we only one 1 game. I never had any motivation to really work hard. I always did what i was told to do, but never anything extra. In high school, while playing for my school, we never were any good. My first year of college i was a red shirt so i didn't play. I was given a year that did not count against my eligibility so that i could mature and grow. My first year in college we sucked, we finished 2nd from last in our conference. This last year, my sophemore year at my junior college (last year at junior college) i played well, threw a 2-hitter against UT Tyler, a well known division III school, and we as a team, we so very close to making it to playoffs. The entire season all i could do was think about going to playoffs. Playoffs playoffs playoffs. My entire life every season that meant something, my team has sucked balls, and now finally after so long i have a chance to go to the PLAYOFFS! it's all i've ever wanted is to just go. I didn't care if we got swept in the first round, i just wanted to go.
We didn't go, but we were in the race until the very last series. Going into the last series, we were tied for the last playoff spot. The first tiebreaker was heads up, which we were 3-3 with eachother. The 2nd tiebreaker was how well you did against the 1st place team. We were playing the first place team, #1 team in the nation, Richland College. They were the worst team in our confernce, probably going to sweep them. That meant that if we swept Richland, we would beat them out in the tiebreaker...
In the bottom of the 9th inning, we were losing 8-7. We had 1 out with runners on 2nd and 3rd base, and our best hitter who was hitting about .420 up to bat. That was the best situation we could be in. All he had to do was get the ball into the outfield safely and both runners score, we win, our chance at going to playoffs in extremely good. The batter absolutely creams a line drive, heading over the 2nd baseman. Everyone starts screaming and cheering in the dugout, we knew what we had to do and we thought we did it. Unfortunately, the 2nd baseman jumps into the air as high as he can, barely catching the line drive, then throws it to 2nd to double him off, ending the game, and ending our chance at playoffs. I've never seen 23 people have so much joy and turn it into sadness and disbelief that quickly, within 2 seconds.
This made me want to try so god damn hard to get better. I knew i could do it. I committed to NWOSU, an NAIA school, who needed pitchers. I was going to work my ass off and give it everything i had to go to playoffs because this past year has been the most fun i've ever had playing baseball. I have been running, lifting weights, and i hired a trainer to help me train. The training is supposed to make me injury proof and increase the speed of my fastball. I should be throwing 92-93 mph in december. I was looking forward to it so much.
But today, during my lifting, i was about to start doing pull-ups, and as soon as i started my first rep..."pop-pop" really quick. i stopped what i was doing...left the YMCA, and headed to a friends house whose parents know a shitload about biomechanics. His mother was the only one home and she couldn't tell for sure what it was. I called my trainer whose main expertise is sports rehabilitaion, he said ice it and we'll look at it tomorrow.
Everytime i've tweaked something or felt pain in my knees or ankles, the first question someone asks me is "did you hear or feel a pop?" I've always said no, and a couple of days later, i'm back doing whatever. This time the answer is yes. There was a pop. I'm scared. Pops = tears. Tears = surgery. Surgery = 99% chance you will not get drafted. Its pretty much automatic if you don't throw 95+, and even if you do, you have a red flag the rest of your career.
So just don't take anything for granted. I feel i'm obligated to tell stories that could improve someones elses life. I believe in God, i know some of you don't, but i think that God, or the universal force, or whatever, puts you through trying times for 2 reasons...One, you learn from it and better your life, and Two, you tell other people and possibly inspire them, and my story could better someone else's life.
Tomorrow, i go to Chuck, the trainer, he'll examine it, and probably refer me to someone for an MRI, and hopefully in a week i'll have an update. Hopefully it will be a strain, however, I'm going to school for physical therapy and sports rehabilitation, and as i haven't taken any classes yet, being around sports and being interested in physcial therapy and well, just knowing my own body, i'm 95% sure i torn the fuck out of something. The only weird part (5%) is the location and type of pain... I can't explain why it hurts were it does and why there are like 2 kinds of pain... but who knows.
Sorry for making such a long depressing blog. i just needed to express myself some...get it off my chest. I figure i'll see a lot of "tl;dr" and "baseball sucks" and "haha u believe in god" but hey, at this point i really don't care about anything. baseball could be gone for me.
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| sigh...its like they are throwing money out of a helicopter and i dont have any hands...so i just break even. | Last edit: 20/07/2009 22:04 |
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TheTank United States. Jul 20 2009 22:03. Posts 830 | | |
Baal went for the trifecta, and told me to move it here. |
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| sigh...its like they are throwing money out of a helicopter and i dont have any hands...so i just break even. | |
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Baalim Mexico. Jul 20 2009 22:07. Posts 34262 | | |
well actually i did read it, but the baseball sux and mainly the lol you believe in god were honest 
gl with the arm |
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TheTank United States. Jul 20 2009 22:08. Posts 830 | | |
thanks  |
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| sigh...its like they are throwing money out of a helicopter and i dont have any hands...so i just break even. | |
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I can feel your pain man, my sister is a national gymnast in Canada, and she blew her hamstring during the year of all the China Beijing Olympic qualifiers, she had a real chance to be in the olympics and the coaches had really high hopes for her, but hey shit happens. Since then, shes lost her passion for gymnastics , however shes still very lucky shes still good enough to get a scholarship to some fancy school in the states. The life of an athlete is tough man. |
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k2o4 United States. Jul 20 2009 22:16. Posts 4803 | | |
Shit man, that's scary. I hope it isn't anything too serious. I know what you're going through to a certain degree. I played sports my entire life till sophmore year of HS when I dislocated my shoulder. They said to wear a sling for 6 weeks and then do rehab, but there were only 5 weeks left in the season and I was starting for offense/defense and we were one of the top teams in the league, so I said fuck that and kept playing after wearing the sling for 1 day. In the last game of the season I dislocated it again and had to have surgery. Ever since then I haven't been able to do sports seriously cause the surgery didn't hold, had to have a second one, which failed also, and to this day my shoulder dislocates very easily. So I went from every sports team for my entire life to no more sports. Shitty.
Try to avoid surgery and just try to rehab it. Do yoga or something. Do anything to avoid surgery.
GL! |
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ToD France. Jul 20 2009 22:22. Posts 191 | | |
sad story, but it isnt the end of the world, even if u cant play baseball anymore there are plenty of sports out there where u dont need to have such strong arm for |
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thumbz555 United States. Jul 20 2009 22:38. Posts 3281 | | |
Figure out what you tore/hurt then take the steps from there. If you do need surgery make sure your trainer and everyone you know keep their mouths shut as MLB teams have scouts that sneak around to try and find that info out. Keep it out of the local papers as well. My boss was the head ATC for 3 different MLB teams, so i get a lot of stories. GL
btw Yoga won't do shit for you |
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TheTank United States. Jul 20 2009 22:45. Posts 830 | | |
they look at medical records. the only thing i could do is get the surgery in mexico. someone i knew did that and thats the only way he went unnoticed. |
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| sigh...its like they are throwing money out of a helicopter and i dont have any hands...so i just break even. | |
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jasper5408 United States. Jul 20 2009 22:54. Posts 820 | | | |
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FYI just because they're a trainer doesn't mean they know there head from there ass about pitchers workouts. In fact most don't, you're best off doing your own research or contact the schools your thinking about attending for summer workouts assuming they know what the fuck there doing which can be sketchy in some cases. |
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| | Last edit: 21/07/2009 01:40 |
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Oh and you probably are going to want to find out your expected role is going to be on the staff as relief pitchers workouts are very different then starters workouts. If you want information on either let me know. |
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| | Last edit: 20/07/2009 23:52 |
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TheTank United States. Jul 21 2009 00:56. Posts 830 | | |
god today suxxxxxxxxxxxx i have a feeling i'm about to lifetilt my rollllllllllllllllll fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. more shit just keeps getting pilled on |
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| sigh...its like they are throwing money out of a helicopter and i dont have any hands...so i just break even. | |
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RICHI8 United States. Jul 21 2009 01:15. Posts 1341 | | |
I feel your pain. I was a wrestler in high school with 3 colleges to pick from for full rides. My senior year I fucked up my knee. My doctor said I could probably wrestle through college, but the remaining years of my life would be rather painful. I made what I thought and still think was the best thing at the time and turned down the scholarships. It sucks and hurts to think about, but you gotta do what's best for yourself and future. |
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Sicks Macks United States. Jul 21 2009 01:32. Posts 3929 | | |
I'm sorry to hear about that. Hope it's nothing, but it's not a draft death sentence if it is afaik. |
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Unless it burned it should be something time off and rehab can fix pretty easily. It's when you getting a deep burning sensation that you really have a problem. |
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TheTank United States. Jul 21 2009 01:44. Posts 830 | | |
it feels like i'm being stabbed in the collar bone with an electric knife. Pain all around the deltoid, esp where it connects in the front and back... |
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| sigh...its like they are throwing money out of a helicopter and i dont have any hands...so i just break even. | |
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Bigbobm United States. Jul 21 2009 02:22. Posts 5511 | | |
Sick writeup, hope nothing is seriously damaged. |
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| Its time to stop thinking like a bitch and think smart like a poker player - ket | |
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RICHI8 United States. Jul 21 2009 02:43. Posts 1341 | | | |
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Exhilarate United States. Jul 21 2009 02:52. Posts 5453 | | |
i hope your arm is okay and your baseball career goes well.
hate to see dreams get shattered because of injuries.
GL man |
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