SHOULDER STRUGGLES

Q

At 19, you had a shoulder reconstruction, which as a pitcher I can only imagine would be totally devastating.

A

What they ended up finding out afterwards was that ligaments in my body are more elastic than most other people’s. What started happening was that my shoulder would dislocate out the front and back every time I threw a ball. Because the joint was going straight back in because of how flexible my ligaments were, I wasn’t really experiencing any pain. It literally came on one night. I was pitching and I couldn’t even make the plate. I thought, ‘There’s something wrong here’, but the pain wasn’t that bad even then. I saw the surgeon and he said I needed a full shoulder reconstruction. After the surgery, he told me I’d most likely never play again. I was 19 at the time. I went to college in the US and played a little bit of softball but I couldn’t even throw overarm at the time. I was at a community college called Lakeland in Illinois and there’s nothing there. I only stayed there for about five months before I decided to come back to Australia and really rehab properly.

While I haven’t been able to make it back into an Australian team as a pitcher, I managed to get my shoulder back to a point where I’ve competed at nationals on the mound for Queensland. I think age helped. I started to understand how to play baseball properly. When I was younger I had the talent but probably lacked the smarts, whereas now it’s probably the other way around. There were many times when I wanted to give up. On the other hand I am very stubborn. It was exciting to play again.