PERSONAL FOWL’
Yanks prospect doesn’t regret play despite injury
Dustin Fowler was at Yankee Stadium on crutches Wednesday instead of playing the outfield, but the rookie doesn’t have any second thoughts about the way he attacked the play during his MLB debut in Chicago last week that resulted in a gruesome, seasonending knee injury. Fowler suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee in the bottom of the first inning against the White Sox on Thursday, when he slammed into a low fence along the right-field line at Guaranteed Rate Field. His first game in the majors was over after less than an inning. “Obviously, I saw the wall,’’ Fowler said before the Yankees’ 7-6 loss to the Blue Jays. “It got to me a little quicker than I wanted it to, but I’m always a guy who’s gonna do everything I can to make the play. “I got to it too aggressively. It was a low wall, and I don’t really know if the metal panel I hit, how big a difference it made, but unfortunately I hit it and what happened, happened. I don’t really regret anything. I would give the same effort if I did it all over again.”
Fowler had immediate surgery at Rush University Medical Center, and is expected to have 4-6 months of rehab.
“I remember watching the video and seeing I hit the metal box, but I can’t say I wouldn’t have been hurt if I didn’t hit it,’’ Fowler said. “I could’ve easily torn an ACL if I didn’t hit it. It’s easy to blame something like that. … I would like to have not hit it and see what happened, but I’m not really blaming anyone or anything.”
Slated to have his first big league at-bat leading off the top of the second, Fowler now will have to wait at least until 2018.
“I was anxious, because I thought I was gonna get up the inning prior,” Fowler said. “You definitely go on defense and want a quick inning so you can get to your at-bat, but unfortunately I wasn’t [able to]. I’ve got a long process to get it going. Hopefully I’ll be there soon and be able to get the first at-bat.”
Even now, the 22-year-old is stunned by how his dream has been delayed.
“When I was sitting there, I had so much adrenaline … I was painless on the field,” Fowler said. “So I was sitting there just thinking I couldn’t believe what was going on. I worked my tail off all this time and finally got there, and in the first 15 minutes I was on the field, I hit the wall.”
He quickly realized he was in trouble.
“When I hit the ground, I could see something was wrong,” Fowler said. “It’s tough to swallow. When I was sitting on the field, it felt like an eternity.”
For now, doctors are making sure Fowler’s wound doesn’t become infected. Once it heals, Fowler said, he will work on regaining his mobility, as well as strength in his quad and knee, before beginning a running program. That remains a long way off. “As of right now, everything is going smoothly,’’ said Fowler, on crutches and with a brace on his right knee. “I’ll have two or three months extra going into spring training [from rehab], so I should be 100 percent.”