Zack’s bro to show photos in Chelsea gallery
COURTESY JACOB WHEELER
The three Wheeler brothers are standing side by side in the October 2016 photograph, a snapshot that took place only a short time after the Mets were ousted by the Giants in the National League wild-card game.
Zack, the youngest sibling, is on the left, smiling despite having endured another injury-riddled year in which he didn’t pitch for the major-league club due to his continued rehab from 2015 Tommy John surgery. Adam, the middle brother, is on the right, while the oldest, Jacob stands in the middle, arms to his side, a wool cap on his head and a bushy beard swallowing his smile.
“That was in my backyard in Georgia,” says Jacob Wheeler, referring to the photo. “It was my first art opening, and Zack has been to every one since, except one time, and that was because the baseball season had started.”
Thursday evening, Zack Wheeler will be supporting his older brother once again, after the Mets take on the Braves earlier in the day at Citi Field and 24 hours before Zack makes his fifth start of the season, at home against Colorado. Jacob Wheeler will host an art opening in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, the third time he has had his art on display in New York City since launching his art career that fall of ’16.
While Zack’s injuries and medical history with the Mets has been well-documented ever since he came to Flushing from the Giants in the 2011 trade involving Carlos Beltran, his older brother’s life journey has been a much more arduous one, complicated by a heart condition Jacob has suffered from since he was 8-years-old: supraventricular tachycardia.
The condition causes an abnormally rapid heartbeat, and Jacob’s athletic pursuits — he was a pitcher, too, as well as a basketball star at Campbell High School in Smyrna, Georgia — were cut short at the high school level.
“It took three years to diagnose, and between the ages of 12 and 18, I had four procedures done, but my heart rate was still very high when I played sports. My junior year, my cardiologist decided I shouldn’t play baseball anymore,” says Jacob. “While I was a patient at Emory (University), I ran on the treadmill and was able to finish my junior basketball season. I always worked hard in sports. I was a freak in practice. But when the news came and I wasn’t able to play, it was actually a lot easier to take.”
Throughout his 20s, Jacob worked for a property management company in the Wheeler brothers’ native Georgia, but his heart issues continued, and Jacob had to undergo three more procedures during that stretch. He says his employer was more than accommodating, and that his insurance was able to cover his mounting medical bills.
When he turned 30, Jacob says he had a dream that he was told by friends to publish his poetry, something he had dabbled in since he was a kid. He began writing and also tried his hand in photography, sparked by a friend of Jacob’s that is a photographer. Jacob began with a Polaroid camera, and later began to turn his work into visual art. Thursday’s opening in Chelsea at The Jue Lan Club is what Jacob describes as a “visually-conceptualized poetry” or “Fine Art Photography.” “I had to teach myself how to photo edit. I didn’t know anything about art,” says Jacob. “I printed all this photography on large canvasses and it sat in my house for four years.” Jacob, 37, says he had his brother Adam, a former Yankees farmhand who is now a contractor in Indiana, come to Georgia in late 2016 to help set up Jacob’s first art opening. Jacob, who says he is also Bipolar 1 and that he suffers from borderline personality disorder and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), says he has “lived vicariously” through Zack, 27, and Adam, 35, as those two brothers pursued baseball careers. Zack says that he’s been able to persevere through injuries because of his oldest brother’s ordeal. “It hasn’t been that difficult because I use (Jacob’s health issues) towards motivation in my career,” says Zack. “It pushes me to be better and keeps me going.” Part of the proceeds from Thursday’s opening will benefit the enCourage Kids Foundation, which helps children facing different health challenges. “That’s the main reason I am showing the art — if I can impact ill children in some positive way,” says Jacob, who can still exercise in a limited capacity now. “Hopefully this is the beginning for me being able to do more for sick kids.”