Back on the Bump

Its been nearly three months since I took that fall from grace after attempting to slam dunk, but yesterday I took another big step in my rehab. As the title suggests, I stepped on a mound for the first time and threw a bullpen. Its taken a lot of hours of physiotherapy and a lot of patience, so it was a very sweet moment for me. I've been throwing about four times a week for the last three weeks to get my arm in shape. Even though I haven't been able to catch a ball thrown to me from over 70 feet, I felt like I was ready to get back on the mound and start to get ready to pitch in a game.

I stepped onto the mound with my heart beating a million times a minute. To say the least I was extremely nervous. You're probably wondering why I would be nervous. There wasn't anyone trying to hit the ball, just the catcher and me, but I was nervous on how I would feel. How my right arm would feel, how my left arm would feel, how good my control would be. I said a little prayer and then I threw my first pitch, my second, third, fourth then fifth. All five of those pitches were balls and were nowhere near the strike zone. My catcher told me to step off the mound and breath, something I had forgotten to do those first few pitches. Once I took the mound again everything started to feel good again. I was throwing strikes and apart from a slight mechanical change in my front arm, I felt great. The ball was coming out of my hand great, I had good control, my change up had movement and I was throwing it for strikes.

This bullpen was far better than what I thought it would be. Everything that I've done up until this point has been worth it. All the hours of physiotherapy, all the time spent sleeping with my arm in a brace, all the time I've spent at home trying to straighten my arm, bend my arm, twist my hand instead of going out with friends have been worth it. I'm still hoping I will be ready by November 2nd for the opening series of the Australian Baseball League against Cavalry. I've come this far, and worked so hard, no reason I can't keep working hard to be ready in three weeks time.

"For nothing is impossible with God" - Luke 1:37

Corendon Kinheim, Hoofdklasse Honkbal Kampioen!

If you can read Dutch, then you would be able to understand the title of this entry and if you can't, you're about to find out. The team I played for in Holland, Corendon Kinheim are now the champions of the National League in Holland!

I left just before the playoffs and Kinheim had qualified for the playoffs in 3rd place behind Amsterdam and Neptunus, and just ahead of the Pioneers. The way the playoffs work in the league is that each team will play each other 3 times, and the best two records after all those games, goes through to the Holland Series, which is the name of the finals.

After a rough start to the playoffs where Kinheim got swept in the series by Neptunus, they found themselves in a tough hole to dig out of. They dug out of that hole quite easily by winning 4 of the next 6 games to seal their spot in the Holland Series.

That momentum kept rolling as they took down Neptunus in amazing fashion, winning the series 4-0 and crowning themselves the 2012 champions. I really wish I could have been there with the boys to celebrate and be apart of the win, but I knew all along they could do this and I'm extremely proud of all of them. Hopefully I'll be back there next season and we can make it back-to-back championships!

Since I've Been Home

It's been over a month since I've been home and even longer since I've last posted on here, so I thought it would be good to update everyone on my injury. I would love to update more but with the use of only one arm, typing on a keyboard takes quite a long time.

I arrived home from the Netherlands on the 19th of July and I didn't have much time to enjoy being home as I had doctors appointments lined up over the next few days. The day after I arrived home my mum and I went to see the first specialist. The initial diagnosis from him was that there was irreparable damage, and even after surgery my arm would never be back to the way it used to be. Safe to say, I didn't really like this guy too much. Two days later we went to see another specialist and he was much more positive and my mum and I got good vibe from him. He explained what happened to my elbow, how they would operate on it and the process of recovery. Mum and I decided to go with this doctor and that I would have surgery the next day.

I underwent elbow reconstruction surgery on the 24th of July. The surgeon cleaned out the shattered bone, fixed the radial head using some of the shattered bone, which is now held together by a screw and a tiny anchor, and also he repaired the torn ligaments. The surgery took nearly two hours and when I finally woke up I was in no mans land. My left arm was completely numb and in a cast and I was so drugged that you could have held a gun to my head and I would have laughed at you. I spent one night in hospital before I was allowed to go home. My instructions from the doctor were to relax and do nothing. It was perfect timing as well because I could relax and do nothing, whilst watching the Olympics.

One week post surgery

Two weeks post surgery I went back to the doctors for a check up. The cast came off and I was put into a brace. The brace is used to stabilize my arm while it gives it a restricted range of motion. My first thought of when he put the brace on my arm is that if Forrest Gump needed a brace on his arm instead of his legs, he'd look exactly like me. The main problem with the elbow now is not the bones that have been repaired, but getting rid of the stiffness in the elbow. Since my arm was sitting in a cast for two weeks, the ligaments tighten up and need to be stretched out. That's where all my rehab time will go to, straightening out my arm and being able to supinate and pronate. Since I got out of the cast I have been to the physiotherapist 3 times a week and we've been making slow improvements. Like I always say, slow improvements are better than no improvements! I'm very lucky because my physio has a background in baseball and was the team physio when I played on an U17 Australian team. Not going to lie, the physio sessions do hurt a lot, but like the old saying goes, "No pain! No gain!". One good thing about the brace though, is that I can take it off and I no longer needed to wear a rubbish bag on my arm when I shower.

My first scar

My brace, makes me look bionic

Well, today I went back to the surgeon for another check up and received some very encouraging news. I took new x-rays to him of the repaired elbow and he said everything looks great and the progress I'm making has been good. The best news he said was that if I push myself, I may be ready to resume baseball activities in a months time! This is perfect because Sydney Blue Sox Spring Training begins on the 18th of September and the season begins in the first week of November. I set myself a possible return to baseball in maybe mid December, but I'm extremely excited now that I could be ready to start the season with the Blue Sox.

I would like also like to thank all the support I've been receiving from my Twitter family, all your kind words really help!

Going Home

So my European adventure has come to an abrupt end. I injured myself in an off field incident that will require surgery. It was decided by team officials and my mum that I would travel back to Sydney to have the surgery and do my rehab in the comfort of my own home.

Now to the embarrassing explanation of how this injury occurred. I usually take good care of myself off the field but this was just a big accident and a freak injury. I was playing basketball with Luke Wilkins who traveled from Belgium for the week, and I decided to jump and grab the rim, something I have done over a hundred times before. Only thing is this time when I grabbed the rim my hand slipped and I fell to the floor. I tried to brace the fall with my left arm but the impact was too much and it caused my elbow to dislocate. Luckily I had Luke there to help and he kept calm and was able to call people from the my team to come help.

I remained on the floor on the basketball court while help arrived and once they got there it took a while for me to find my feet and be able to walk properly. Up until this point in my life I had never broken a bone, fractured or dislocated anything so everything was a bit scary to me. As I started to walk I felt like I was going to pass out but with the help of others I was able to get in the car. Once I got in we went straight to the hospital.

I haven't had many experiences with hospitals but all I remember is in Sydney hospitals having to spend hours waiting to see a doctor. This wasn't the case here as I went straight into a room, was quickly assessed, given medication, had an x-ray and got a cast put on all in under two hours. I don't remember too much from my time at the hospital. I don't even remember having my elbow put back into place. All I do know is that the x-ray also revealed I had also fractured the elbow in three places which meant I was going to need surgery.

As bad as I felt for myself at the time, I felt even worse for my team that I am leaving. Even though I have only been here for six weeks I have made some awesome new friends and it hurts that I won't be here to play alongside them once the playoffs begin next week. Everyone here has made me feel welcome and comfortable during my time here and I'm truly grateful for their hospitality.

So over the next few months I will have to get myself healthy again, prepare for the Australian Baseball League season, and once that ends, hopefully I'll find myself back here in Holland playing for Kinheim because I have some unfinished business to take care of.

Sad panda. Picture taken just after I got back from the hospital.

PS - if you want to see a picture of my dislocated elbow, comment on this post. 

Dontrelle Willis Announces Retirement

Now you're probably all wondering why I would want to write about Dontrelle Willis. Yes, his career was plagued by inconsistency after his early years in Florida but that's not how I will remember him. I will remember him as the fun loving guy who always had a smile on his face and a hat that wasn't worn quite straight. I'll remember the 22 games he won in 2005 and in the same year became the first pitcher in 32 years to bat 7th in the hitting lineup. I'll also never forget the two home runs he hit against the Mets in September of 2006 to go along with the 8 innings he threw that night.

I have modelled my game around the way that Dontrelle played. I played each game like it was my last. Leaving everything out on the field and having fun while doing it. Many people, especially many of my Blue Sox teammates would be used to my signature "smile while poking the tongue out face" I make while on the mound was something I would do when I felt like I stuffed up or got away with a mistake. Even though I'm in the heat of the moment, I still find a lighter side in everything. Something I always enjoyed seeing Dontrelle do. The way he would slide head first into 3rd base while running out a triple is exactly the way I would do it. Even though the coach wouldn't approve of his pitcher sliding into base, it didn't stop him from playing hard. Playing the game it was meant to be played, just like you're a little leaguer playing on the sandlot with your friends.

One day I even decided I'm going to start pitching like Dontrelle Willis. I wore high socks, I had a high leg kick, twisted my body, hands were raised above my head and I threw across my body. People asked me why I did that and I simply told them, because it's what the D-Train does. That's when I received the nicknames T-Train and VanTrelle. I had that pitching action for five years. I even wore number 35 because of him, then changed to 21 when he moved to Detroit.

I'm definitely going to miss him and the way he played the game, but wish him the best in retirement. He is truly my favourite player of all time, no one else will understand why except me.

@D_Train35 retweeting one of my tweets

My game use Dontrelle Willis bat

@D_Train35 replying to one of my tweets

Series vs Sparta/Feyenoord

Yes, if you were wondering if I was excited to play a team with Sparta in the name, I was. Too bad the team were not anything like Gerard Butler and his army of 300 Spartans. Sparta/Feyenoord are the last place team in the league and had a 5-27 record before playing us this week.

Game 1 - Part 1
All day it threatened to rain and as the game started a little drizzle started to fall. We were up 4-1 before the rain really decided to make its presence felt in the bottom of the 3rd inning. The umpires decided to call the game and we would have to restart the game the next day.

Game 1 - Part 2
So on what would usually be a day off for us, we were back at the ball park to try and play the first game of the series. Like we did the day before, we scored runs at a frantic pace and finished up winning the game 14-2 after 7 innings due to the mercy rule being enforced. David Bergman started and threw 6 innings giving up 2 runs to pick up his 7th win of the season while Ramiro Ballentina and Rachid Engelhart paced the offence going a combined 5 for 7 with 4 RBIs and 3 runs scored. To put into perspective the vast age differences in this team, Ramiro is 38 years old, while Rachid is only 16.

Game 2
We travelled to Sparta/Feyenoord's field on Saturday to try and wrap up the series and we did it in fine fashion. Nick Veltkamp threw another quality outing going 7 shutout innings before myself and Pim Walsma completed the shutout. There were a number of offensive standouts for us today but a big shoutout once again goes to Rachid Engelhart who blasted his first career home run in the top grade here in Holland.

We were suppose to play the final game of the series on Sunday but rain decided to ruin the party and the game got postponed to be played on Tuesday night.

Game 3
We took care of business as usual and defeated Sparta 10-0 to complete the sweep. Luke Sommer threw 6 shutout innings to pick up his 9th win of the season. I was suppose to come into the game in the 8th inning but the offense decided they didn't want me to throw. We wee up 5-0 heading into the 7th then scored 5 runs with 2 outs to enforce the mercy rule and end the game. It was kind of bitter sweet, because I love winning, and I love pitching and I didn't get to do one of them today. But that's the life of a relief pitcher!

Weekend Series vs Door Neptunus

Door Neptunus travelled to our field on Saturday for the second game of the series. My roommate got the start for us today and was solid through 3 inning before running into a bit of trouble in the 4th allowing 4 runs to score. The wind was howling out to right field and that helped the balls get into the gaps safely instead of being routine outs. He allowed 1 run again in the 5th before coming out of the game in the 6th and handed the ball to Steven Van Groningen.

During this game we proved you don't need to get hits to score runs. After putting together quality at bats we were able to score 1 run in the 5th, 3 in the 7th, and then 1 in the 8th to tie the game. Four of those runs came in via a bases loaded walk or a hit by pitch once again proving that baseball is one funny game. All of a sudden we were tied at 5-5 heading into the last inning.

Steven came out to throw the 9th inning and got the first two outs quite quickly and then the elements played a big in how the game was decided. The Neptunus batter hit what looked like a routine fly ball, but it got caught in the wind which carried it just over the wall to give Neptunus a 6-5 lead. We came back out to try and tie it up in the 9th but went down in order as Dushan Ruzic closed out the win.

On Sunday we had to travel back out to Rotterdam and avoid the sweep. Things didn't go to plan as Neptunus scored first but we instantly replied by scoring 2 runs on an errant pick off attempt to 2nd. The pitcher attempted a pick off, but threw it away. As the center fielder ran in to pick up the ball, he missed it which allowed the runner from 1st to score as well. Those were the only runs we would score all game as Neptunus put on runs slowly to run out 6-2 winners and finish off the sweep. I came into the game in the 7th inning and allowed 1 hit in 2/3 of an inning.

This week we take on Sparta/Feyenoord who are the last place team in the league. Hopefully we can take all 3 games from them and get closer to clinching that playoff spot.