Hospital work makes Marlins prospect grateful to play baseball

We just couldn’t let this stuff go …

Miami Marlins pitching prospect Will Stewart landed a $10-an-hour offseason hospital job in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and said the experience made him more grateful for baseball.

“There were 25-, 26-, 28year-olds getting COVID and dying,” Stewart said. “I watched people come in that couldn’t breathe or had no control over their body. It was very scary and eye-opening. The entire time I was there, I just wanted to get back on the field.”

Stewart spoke Friday at the Marlins’ spring training complex in Jupiter, Fla., after throwing in an intrasquad game — his first game since 2019.

The left-hander was acquired two years ago in the trade that sent catcher J.T. Realmuto to the Philadelphia Phillies. Now 23, Stewart has yet to advance beyond Single-a, and the pandemic wiped out the 2020 season for him.

Stewart said he’s more determined than ever to succeed after working in his hometown of Huntsville, Ala., for a cardiologist. Needing the money, he landed the job through a girlfriend even though he had no experience in medicine, and worked at the hospital for six months.

“I was basically like a tech,” Stewart said. “I saw people my age getting really, really sick. It makes you appreciate life 10 times more.”

Now he’s in a major league spring training camp for the first time, eager to make a good impression.

He won’t be going back to hospital work.

“It definitely proved to me I don’t want to go into health care,” Stewart said. “Those people get a lot of crap. I definitely feel for them.”

Trivia question

Only two current major leaguers have 200 or more career wins, and both are with the Houston Astros: Zack Greinke (208) and Justin Verlander (226), who might not add to his victory while recovering from Tommy John surgery this season. What active pitcher is next on the list?

They said it

• From David Whitley of the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun, on Terry

Bradshaw — way back in 1985 — checking into a hospital using the alias Tom Brady: “How different would NFL history have been if Bradshaw had checked in under the name Ryan Leaf?”

• From comedian Argus

Hamilton, via Facebook, on the Rover’s search for water on Mars: “They should’ve sent me there with my golf clubs. I’d have found water by my third tee shot.”

• From color commentator

Ray Hudson of bein Sports TV, after Barcelona’s Lionel Messi put on a one-man show to score against SD Huesca: “He needs help like a shark needs a dentist.”

• From Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe, via Twitter, on the death of middleweight icon

Marvelous Marvin Hagler: “At his championship peak, he was Boston’s fifth major sports franchise all by himself.”

Trivia answer

The Nationals’ Jon Lester has

193 victories, followed by the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw and the Nationals’ Max Scherzer,

each with 175. The Orioles’ Felix

Hernandez is sixth on the list with 169 victories.