A Year Ago today...

It has been a year.

To the day.

March 23rd, 2012 was the day I had "the" baseball surgery that is so commonplace now that you simply wait to see who's going under the knife every spring training.  Every time you hear "elbow issue" or "tightness" you always start to think about when they're going to go under the knife.

So I had to celebrate a little bit.  I spent the morning where I hoped I would be: On a baseball field playing catch and throwing some pitches.  I even managed to hit a little bit and run around in the outfield.  It was a lot of fun.  Significantly better than being wheeled into an operating room and waking up to Otter Pops and confusion.

My arm feels good too.  Sure, there's a little soreness right now, but I'm expecting that.  I threw probably 30 pitches from the mound and did a lot of long toss as well.  The real thing is much more different than throwing into a sock.

Tomorrow are the PSSBL tryouts so I'll warm up with someone again. It'll be the first time I've done that back to back since the surgery.

The velocity is getting there again.  I made a small mechanical adjustment that seemed to help a little bit. I ended up twisting my left hip inside just a little bit which seemed to slow everything else down enough to let my arm catch up. I think my arm was behind my legs so I slowed the legs down to catch up.

My pitches still move pretty well, but could be better  I think I need to make a mechanical adjustment to my brain and just throw the pitches the way they're meant to be thrown.

So a year. What a long road it's been.  I just know that, in a month, when I take the mound in a game it's all going to be worth it. There's no doubt in my mind.  Just like I didn't ever doubt I'd be back.

I've been fortunate to have such a wonderful bunch of people supporting me especially my (now) wife Katy. She put up with the brace nonsense, the PT, the pain, the soreness, the multiple ice packs and everything else.  My teammates, friends, and Ken have been as supportive as ever.  Everyone just wants my arm to get better.

I think, if I had to sum it all up, I'm grateful to be where I am. I'm thankful that this last year is behind me and I'm ready to move forward.