Latest / The Layback Podcast / Andrew and Thomas Bennett, Top Ranked High School Pitcher and Father (Ep. 40)

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Andrew and Thomas Bennett, Top Ranked High School Pitcher and Father (Ep. 40) · The Layback Podcast

0:00
Hello and welcome back to the Lay Back podcast.
0:02
Joining us today is Andrew Bennett and his father, Thomas
0:07
Bennett. We know him affectionately as
0:09
Tommy, so I'll probably be throwing that out there a good
0:11
bit. But we got connected with Andrew
0:14
and Tommy a little over a year ago now.
0:17
Andrew was a top pitcher in his class in the United States and
0:23
rightfully so. His dad was trying to look after
0:25
him and sought out Flexpro Grid sought out some arm care, tried
0:30
to learn more about it, and like any kid, Andrew had a ton going
0:34
on. It's tough to fit things
0:35
together, and because he threw so hard, that also put him at a
0:39
high risk of elbow injury. Unfortunately, he ended up
0:43
having to get Tommy John. But we've now been in the
0:45
recovery process for about a year and Andrew is back and
0:50
better than ever. I can say that.
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Fingers crossed, of course, but he still has this competition
0:56
season coming up this spring. But he's back thrown in the 90s.
0:59
Everything's looking good, feeling good.
1:01
At least that's what he's telling me every time I text
1:04
him. And I'm just grateful to have
1:05
these guys on to tell their story as a father and son, as a
1:09
high school kid who experienced this injury at a young age.
1:12
And now he's battling through the recruiting process and just
1:16
trying to figure out what the career is going to look like
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from here. So thanks a ton, guys.
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I'm going to kick it over to you, pick up the pieces for me.
1:23
Anything you guys want to add, Andrew, if you can take it away
1:26
first, go ahead. Thanks for having me on.
1:30
I'm Andrew Bennett. I'm 16 years old.
1:32
I'm a right-handed pitcher from Mobile, AL and I go to Mobile
1:36
Christian School. So I started playing baseball
1:39
when I was 6 at a local park, just T-ball.
1:41
And then I made the All Star team and we're actually T-ball
1:45
champions at the local park. And then I wanted to get the kid
1:52
pitch as quick as I could. So I only played one year of
1:54
machine pitch and I made All Stars there too.
1:58
And then I went to kid pitch. I played up with my brother.
2:01
So that's about two years up. And I said that's when I started
2:04
pitching and I could just, you can just tell like I was
2:07
naturally good at it. So that's where I picked up
2:10
pitching, made All Stars there. And then when I was like 11,
2:15
started playing more local tournaments like travel ball,
2:18
just GSSA, stuff like that. And then 12 year I went to
2:22
Pensacola. I played the team from Pensacola
2:24
called West Florida Academy and we got more on like the national
2:28
scene. So we start playing more
2:30
national tournaments, stuff like that, big PG tournaments.
2:34
And that's where I kind of got recognized nationally.
2:37
And our bullpen wasn't that deep.
2:39
So I pitched against all of the ranked teams, the high ranked
2:42
teams. I was the guy I had to go in
2:44
there and shove. That kind of got me recognized.
2:47
And then I made 12 E Select Fest.
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So I was kind of first for me it was different.
2:53
And then my 13 year season I got recruited from USA Prime after
2:58
the 12 year Slack Fest and I played my 13 year season with
3:00
them. I got up to 88, I pitched the
3:03
whole season and I made thirteen years slack Fest.
3:07
So I was a blast there too. And then my 14 year season I
3:11
played with USA Prime also, but I was struggling with some
3:14
tricep tendonitis. So I I kind of only hit for most
3:18
of the season. I'll probably pitched probably 4
3:20
innings at the end of the season just trying to get back.
3:23
Kind of rushed my throwing program trying to get back.
3:27
So I didn't pitch too much. And then I went to the national
3:30
showcase, got up to 91. I threw about two innings.
3:34
I think 5 KS is is good and then I made 14.
3:37
You select fest and then didn't have the best outing and I was
3:41
missing up in the zone. My arm was late, so wasn't the
3:46
best thing that could have happened, but it happens.
3:48
So try to deal with that. And after the after the select
3:53
fest, we had fall, winter, I kind of take the fall off.
3:56
I don't really play football. I just get in the gym.
3:58
I work on form, just get stronger.
4:00
A lot of Med ball throws, stuff like that.
4:03
Just trying to get ready for school ball.
4:05
And then a lot of bats. I think a week before school
4:09
ball I was supposed to start. I was doing a lot of bats.
4:13
I was shoving, I threw a curveball and I just felt a pop
4:16
in my elbow and then went and got checked out by the trainer
4:20
and went to the Andrews Institute and figured out I was
4:24
torn. UCL so.
4:27
Dang, well hey, thanks for running us through the whole
4:29
story. It might not be the call out
4:33
piece you expected to have a question on right away, but me
4:37
who never was around this stuff, I need you to explain what
4:40
select fest is. Is it literally just like like
4:44
all American quote, UN quote or is it just like top pool of kids
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from your age group? So it's like what top thirty
4:51
part around top 30 kids somewhere in there, top 30 kids
4:54
in the nation from east and West and we all get together.
4:58
We fundraise for a organization like one years to help a
5:02
hospital and with cancer. We went, hung out with the kids,
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had a blast. So that's really cool part about
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it. Very cool.
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And we play a game on television by East versus West and just get
5:14
to have fun. It's a blast so.
5:17
Where was the game or where has? Does it move around or does it
5:20
always get in place? So it depends on the year.
5:23
Yeah. So 12 year was East Cobb, 13
5:25
year we played at the University of Tennessee, so it was pretty
5:28
cool. And 14 year was at the JetBlue
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Park, the minor league fields. Down in Florida.
5:34
Yeah, yeah. So it was pretty cool.
5:37
That's awesome. OK.
5:38
So Andrew, thanks for thanks for the bio.
5:41
We're going to kick it over to your dad.
5:43
Let him share a bit what he's seen in that early process.
5:46
I guess what was it like being a dad through this growth of the
5:51
baseball career and then I guess ultimately now dealing with
5:55
probably the hardest thing Andrew's dealt with in in his
5:57
baseball career so far. It's it's it's been a lot of fun
6:01
up to that point, obviously. Yeah, he was even going back to
6:06
his his eight U season, you know, he was still because of
6:08
his birthdays in April. He was still 7 playing up with
6:11
the nines and 10s. And a buddy of mine was coaching
6:14
the team and I was working shift work.
6:15
So I was working night shift. I didn't even get to see it.
6:18
And he's like, yeah, I put Andrew in the pitch and I'm like
6:20
you, you put my 7 year old in the pitch against night and he
6:23
was like he shoved, he absolutely dealt.
6:26
And I was like, OK, all right, well, maybe we, we have
6:29
something here. And then it just kind of clues
6:31
from there. And then the West Florida thing
6:33
was was great for him because it really caught him out there.
6:36
And you know, you're playing all the East Cobs and the East Cob
6:39
Astros and, and, and the Keynes National and you're, you're
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playing all those, you know, those nationally ranked teams
6:46
and all that stuff. So he was thrown to the fire
6:49
pretty quick. We went from local Gulf Coast
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baseball, all local teams that you know, you know very well and
6:54
you play we can week out to national kids from all over the
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country. So the the first Select Fest, we
7:00
didn't really know what it was. The guy who coached his pitching
7:03
coach and trainer was like, I can tell by your response, you
7:06
don't really understand how big of a deal this is.
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And you know, we're like, so when we got up there, Ryan
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Calesco was the coach, Flash Gordon, it was unbelievable.
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And they're all great guys and and PG really does a great job
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of putting those events on and treating them like pro athletes.
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So it's really been a blessing to be a part of each one of
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those years. That's been really great.
7:28
But leading up to it, we take the fall off.
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That's our time to work out and that's our time to get after it.
7:33
He's been working on change up this the fall before he got
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hurt, it was just 12126 curveball and fastball.
7:40
That's what all he utilized to that point.
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We're like, all right, we need to add a change up and then a
7:44
slider. So he was working at change up
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and I mean, he was strong. He was up to 94 and he was super
7:51
excited about his freshman year going to start varsity and his
7:55
brother was a senior. So it's going to be like great,
7:57
but I get to have both my sons playing at the same time on the
7:59
same field. And, you know, unfortunately
8:02
things didn't go our way with that, but Andrews Institutes
8:05
right down the road and those guys are great.
8:08
So we got in with them. We were in good hands and, and
8:11
all of that stuff. And once he got in there and
8:12
actually opened up his arm, looked at it, he was like, yeah,
8:14
that was the right decision. We really need to go ahead and
8:17
do this reconstruction. And there was no really doubt on
8:20
on if Andrew was going to come back or not because, I mean,
8:22
he'd broken his arm in the past and came back, you know,
8:26
stronger than growth plate issues because he grew so fast.
8:29
And the tricep tendonitis, that was probably the hardest thing
8:31
to come back from that was that was, I don't want to say harder
8:36
to come back from than this, but it was difficult because it took
8:39
us a while to get that one even diagnosed right, right there by
8:43
the elbow. And everyone just automatically
8:45
assumes it's, oh, you, something's going on with your
8:47
elbow. We did PRP, we did imaging and
8:50
everything was clean, everything was good.
8:52
So it's, it's been interesting. And, and you know, leading up to
8:56
that injury, we got introduced to Flex pro grip by a kid that's
9:01
from down here, Josh Gunther. He he goes Wake Forest and Wake
9:05
Forest is real big on that device.
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And in turn, he got like what, 200 or 300 RPMS on his
9:11
curveball. So he had like a mid curveball
9:14
and all of a sudden an absolute banger just in training with
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Flex Pro. So we didn't get the device for
9:19
safety purposes, which, yes, part of my week conversations
9:22
with with Darrell, Your dad? Yeah, that was a mistake.
9:27
We, we there were warning signs leading up to it, but you don't
9:31
know what you don't know till you go through it.
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And then he was experienced forearm soreness before the
9:36
week, two weeks before we did. We're like, OK, no, we'll shut
9:39
it, shut him down. And then for just a couple days
9:42
extra couple days of rest and then get back to throwing.
9:44
From the hindsight, what we should have done was evaluated
9:48
his strength in his forearm muscles and strengthen him up to
9:51
the point that could handle the load from which he was throwing
9:55
and then got back after it. But we didn't do that.
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And then an injury happens because I mean, as you know and
10:01
as as Daryl knows, those forearm muscles take load off UCL, three
10:06
of them specifically. Well, we didn't know that.
10:09
Of course, since he got hurt. I reached out to Daryl.
10:12
We, we put together a good plan. You know, we reached out to you.
10:14
We great group of guys. I'm out.
10:16
I'm talking to you like you're not in the room like we're we're
10:19
not face to face, but I. Appreciate the love.
10:22
He put the, he put a, you guys put a plan together for his
10:25
rehab and as soon as he was able to, we were on it.
10:30
And we the, the, the plan was start off with this rehab
10:34
session and we're going to work up.
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You can't touch a baseball until when you get to this point.
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And his physical therapist was on board with that.
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As far as the strength part goes, he's like, OK, well, we,
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we have to get you strong enough to strength shield everything.
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Otherwise, we're going to be down this road again.
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So we just refocused on strength and and went on from there.
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Heck yeah, Andrew, you got anything you need to add to that
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or you feel all right? Your dad answered.
10:58
OK. That's pretty much it.
11:00
Sweet. All right, Well, yeah.
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He even started to tease a bit of my next question, which was
11:07
what's your injury history look like and kind of what is the
11:12
elbow injury story? So we heard about broken arm.
11:14
I got to know when that happened and how it happened and then go
11:18
ahead. What was it?
11:19
Because which time? I've broken it like 4 Times Now.
11:22
No way. Doing.
11:25
What? Well, the first time my cousin
11:27
said that she was going to catch me off the swing, I never
11:29
trusted her again. Did not catch me.
11:31
He was. Full.
11:32
Yeah. So that didn't go well.
11:34
And then another time I was sliding in the home plate and
11:38
I'll post it up in the dirt and it broke then.
11:41
And then one time I was on the black top playing basketball and
11:45
I went to go pack somebody. Yep.
11:47
And I kind of fell over on top of them and I tried to catch
11:50
myself on the concrete and just. It didn't end well.
11:54
So yeah. We got to keep you on the ground
11:57
is what we're hearing. Every one of these things
11:59
involved. You jump in, I guess you're a
12:01
ground sport guy from now on. The mound is a good place for
12:05
you then. Yeah.
12:07
But so this elbow tendonitis, I, I think it's interesting, Tommy,
12:11
that you brought up how difficult that was to deal with.
12:15
Andrew, do you think it was so difficult mostly because it was
12:19
always one of those things that was only kind of bad.
12:23
It was almost like it was just kind of like there and
12:25
lingering. So you always wanted to push as
12:28
opposed to like, no, I need to, I need to get in the weight
12:31
room. I need to see a physical
12:32
therapist. Like how'd you, how'd you manage
12:35
all that? Like what did the whole thing
12:36
look like for you? Yeah.
12:38
So at first I think we tried taking a couple weeks off, just
12:41
no throwing to see if it would heal that way.
12:44
That didn't work. I came back throwing and it and
12:47
honestly, it might have hurt worse just from that.
12:49
So we saw that wasn't going to work, just taking off
12:53
completely. And I think we went to Andrews
12:55
Institute and they checked it out.
12:58
They told us maybe APRP would help heal it.
13:02
So we got that injection and then I think I took a couple
13:06
weeks off just for the injection to kind of settle and then I
13:09
went start throwing. That didn't help.
13:11
It was still hurting really bad. So I went to my physical
13:15
therapist that helped me in the past with shoulder birth plate
13:19
issues and he got me really strong.
13:21
He helped me get back quick. So I went back to him and we
13:25
started training a lot of triceps.
13:28
We did a lot of isometric stuff on my triceps, stuff like that,
13:31
and it started to get a little better, a little better, but it
13:35
was still, it was still hurting. So I kind of just like, you know
13:37
what, I'm just going to start throwing and I'm just going to
13:40
deal with the pain because my trainer, Kevin Neighbors, he was
13:44
just like, it might be something that you just have to throw
13:46
through. So I was doing PT and I was just
13:49
throwing through it and eventually it kind of just faded
13:51
away. I don't know if I just got used
13:53
to the pain or just kind of went away.
13:57
But yeah, that's kind of how we got rid of it.
13:59
But it is a long long journey to get rid of.
14:02
It is like trying everything SO finally figured it out at the
14:05
end so that. Was way worse than going through
14:08
this. Yeah, the the UCL was like, OK,
14:11
imaging. Yep, there it is all right.
14:14
Now we have to do this. It was XYZ.
14:16
The tricep was it was it was all over the place.
14:19
Well, maybe to growth. Know how you growth, but looks
14:21
good. Well, maybe it's because
14:23
referred down. He felt it in his elbow.
14:25
That one we we ended up going to two different physical
14:27
therapists. We went to a guy that I can only
14:30
describe as a wizard. Everyone in the local down here
14:33
Mobile talks about him like he's he's the man Bob Fleming.
14:37
If you if you ever run into him, but he he's done it all seen it
14:41
all and he had needles and everywhere you could put a
14:44
needle and then started to get better and he was like, when it
14:47
come time to strengthen. Then we went to Logan and Logan
14:50
was like, he's a Crossfitter. You know, he's a younger guy.
14:53
He's jacked. He was like, OK, all right, he's
14:57
going to push and that that got him through the season.
15:02
I'm glad you brought up isometrics, Andrew, because
15:05
what's so crazy about I guess tenderness injuries that people
15:11
don't realize is rest isn't going to fix the problem.
15:15
Rest can make the pain go away because you're not working it,
15:18
you're not utilizing the muscle tendon unit, you're not moving
15:22
that joint. But once you start again, all of
15:26
it's going to come right back. You didn't do anything to fix
15:28
the problem. You just masked the symptom.
15:31
So what you said with isometrics, obviously that's
15:33
what you're doing with Flexpro grip as well.
15:35
But you actually have to load the tendon to get it to respond,
15:40
to get it to heal. So you're, you're beyond your
15:42
years, especially as a 14 year old now.
15:45
Now you're a little bit older, but crazy the stuff that you
15:48
were able to experience. Then you're if baseball doesn't
15:52
work out, you might have APT. It's all about time under
15:58
tension, right? Every doctor wants to prescribe
16:00
time off. Like that's the go to.
16:02
You go to a doctor like time off like, okay, well then what
16:08
happens when we start throwing again?
16:10
We never addressed the problem. The problem was we needed to
16:13
build it up enough to where the the the inflammation went away.
16:16
We needed to increase the time under tension and increase the
16:19
load creates the workload of the muscle.
16:21
It's the same thing with flexible grip.
16:23
You know, you're strengthening those muscle tending units to
16:25
where they can handle the load. You have to build that up
16:28
slowly. Just playing around with the
16:30
different percentages of your Max, of course, we understand
16:34
that different percentages lead to different adaptations really.
16:39
So I know that's what you've seen the whole gamut of it,
16:42
Andrew, from the lightest stuff at long holds, just trying to
16:48
increase the collagen healing process versus then now you're,
16:52
you're in rate of force development type work, trying to
16:55
get everything to contract as quickly as possible.
16:58
Fire as much as it can focused on how quick, not how much it's
17:03
been fun that you literally have gotten to do every single
17:06
protocol that we offer because of the full rehab schedule.
17:10
But I do want to stick to or I guess go back to the big elbow
17:16
injury the the UCL. So you said you you felt it on a
17:20
curveball. You're throwing lives.
17:21
I did hear you say, or I guess it was Tommy that said it maybe
17:25
like 2 weeks before he had a little bit of extra soreness or
17:28
tenderness in the forearm. So Andrew, like were there
17:32
warning signs you felt like, or was it just kind of like normal
17:35
pitching? Like, oh, that's weird.
17:37
Just like a little stiff like I'll be good.
17:39
So at the time I didn't think much of it because probably 2
17:42
weeks before I went to Auburn camp, threw about 10 pitches
17:46
there. My arm felt fine while I was
17:48
pitching, but after running my forearms very sore, very sore,
17:53
got really tight and I was just thinking, OK, maybe it's normal,
17:56
You know, it's cold outside. Maybe I'm just a little extra
17:59
sore today. So I took maybe two extra days
18:02
off, kind of light tossed. I didn't think much of it.
18:06
But thinking back now, I probably should have saw that as
18:09
a sign to maybe check this out because that's it's not really
18:12
ever happened to me. Not really used to having
18:15
forearm soreness. So I was kind of different.
18:18
But at the time I didn't think anything of it.
18:19
I just say, OK, I'm sore. So I just kept going.
18:22
Took a couple days off and then I threw a pen and maybe a week
18:27
after Auburn and I was fine. Same thing, had a lot of
18:30
soreness and really tight this time.
18:32
Like it was it was tight but not really in pain.
18:35
It was just sore. And then a week after that,
18:37
through lives, a week before I was supposed to pitch in game,
18:41
getting ready for the school ball season to pitch varsity.
18:44
Yeah, it was it was tight when I was throwing, like while I was
18:47
actually throwing. So that was different, but I
18:50
just kept throwing. And then I, I threw a curveball
18:53
and I felt it popped kind of and I was like, I can't throw
18:57
anymore like this is bad. So I told my coach he's like,
18:59
OK, so the batter stepped out. I threw one more fastball and my
19:04
V load didn't drop. It was still, I think it was at
19:06
89 when I threw that last pitch after the curveball.
19:09
But I was, I told him I was like, I'm done.
19:11
I, I can't do this. Like this hurts bad.
19:14
So I went over to the trainer on campus and he kind of put me
19:18
through some tests, some mobility stuff.
19:20
I told him how my I got, I could feel it in my pinky and ring
19:23
finger, not really like numbness, but like it was like
19:26
tight. I can kind of feel the pain down
19:28
to there. So he was telling me about like
19:31
it could be nerve stuff at the owner nerve and stuff like that,
19:34
maybe rolling. He told me about that.
19:36
And then we went to Andrews Institute, which is about an
19:39
hour and a half away, and got some imaging done and we got the
19:43
pictures back. And they said it was a tear and
19:47
that it'd be best to do the full reconstruction instead of just
19:50
the brace for the future if I wanted to continue to pitch in
19:53
college and maybe further than that.
19:56
So we decided to go with the full reconstruction.
19:58
I got out of my hamstring. And then March 12th, I think we
20:02
scheduled for surgery. So I had surgery on March 12th
20:05
and the doctor said it went good and here I am now.
20:10
Well, I, I would guess it, it went pretty well.
20:13
We'd probably know by now if it wasn't going too well based on
20:16
how you're feeling where where you've been back to.
20:19
But all right, so you said you got it out the hamstring, you
20:22
got the graft out the hamstring. Do you not have the Pulmaris
20:25
Longus? Nope, no, I was not happy about
20:28
that because I'll be able to walk, be able to, because I want
20:31
to hit legs. My buddy was having arm problems
20:35
at same time as me. So you're like, all right, we're
20:37
going to smash legs while we're hurt, you know, with a little
20:40
safety bar, we're going to get our legs massive.
20:43
And then I was kind of set back on that part because my leg was
20:47
killing me after it. So did you even have to spend a
20:51
little bit extra time in your rehab, especially early on,
20:54
focused on your leg? So I went to Club 4, which is
20:59
like a local gym, and I was doing very, very light hamstring
21:03
curls, trying to get it back. The pain on my leg is actually
21:06
way worse than my arm. I didn't really have any arm
21:09
pain. It was just like it was hard to
21:11
walk. So I wasn't really expecting
21:13
that. I kind of surprised me a little,
21:16
but yeah, I had to do your hamstring curls and stuff like
21:18
that. Did you know going into the
21:22
surgery that it was coming out of your hamstring or was that
21:24
like a rude awakening when you woke up?
21:26
Like why does my leg hurt? No, I knew it was coming from my
21:30
hamstring. I didn't think it was going to
21:31
hurt because everyone talks about their arms hurting and
21:34
stuff like that so. He made the sound it was no big
21:37
deal. He's like, Oh yeah, we'll just
21:38
take it from your hamstring it you won't even notice it.
21:41
Yeah. Yeah, he told me it wasn't going
21:44
to hurt at all and I wasn't going to notice it.
21:46
And that was like the worst thing ever.
21:48
Couldn't move around at all. Well, there, so I bring that up
21:52
of not knowing. There is one guy I know that
21:55
I've had a lot of conversations with.
21:57
He he's actually in the MLB now, but he went into surgery
22:02
thinking that it was coming out of his arm and the palmaris
22:07
longus tendon ended up not being thick enough or strong enough.
22:11
It was deemed by the surgeon to be the replacement for the UCL,
22:17
so then he ended up waking up finding out that it came out of
22:21
his hamstring. Yeah, I'd be.
22:22
I would not be happy with that. Yeah, I mean, I guess you need
22:26
it to be done, but imagine just waking up looking down be like
22:30
no. They had to cut him twice, so
22:33
they had to check his homeras longus and then realize it
22:36
wasn't long enough and then you go to the hamstring.
22:38
That guy got it in both ends. Yeah, but hey, he's in the show.
22:42
At least he made it all worth it, I guess.
22:45
Yeah, totally worth it. Yeah, so let's get let's get
22:49
back to the timeline because I, I'm so bad with these rabbit
22:52
holes and these tangents. I'll, I'll go off on every
22:55
single 1. And I know Tommy, we've done
22:57
this on phone calls before. We'll hour and a half later.
23:00
We're we're just going to realize we didn't even get.
23:02
To that point, that's me and Daryl once a week at least.
23:05
Yes, So Andrew, you, you get the surgery.
23:10
You, you talk about the, the hamstring bothering you a little
23:13
bit. Now when or how did rehab really
23:17
kick off for you? Were you in the brace?
23:21
Were you going to talk to people, see people right away,
23:24
or was it just like on your own, moving your fingers around what?
23:27
What was that first few weeks like?
23:30
So I kind of had a team around me.
23:31
Y'all really helped a lot. My dad, a lot of people to talk
23:35
to, my trainer, stuff like that. So I started off in a brace and
23:39
kind of a splint like a wrap sort of thing for the first two
23:42
weeks and I was just squeezing a ball because I had to splint on
23:46
so I couldn't fit the Flex Pro on yet.
23:48
So after the two weeks I started doing Flex Pro.
23:52
I think it was like 10% rehab or something like that.
23:55
Very light. So yeah, and I started PT two
23:58
weeks after and the main focus was to get my arms straight to
24:03
get my mobility back. So I think I got my mobility
24:07
back in 21 days. So my PT is very happy with
24:10
that. So basically just I hung my arm
24:13
off the bed, just, I just let it hang like gravity do the work.
24:16
Yep. And it got straight pretty
24:18
quick. So it's pretty happy with that.
24:21
And then we went into some some shoulder strengthening and stuff
24:25
like that and continue to the rehab protocol in Flex Pro.
24:29
So like for forearm training, I kind of used the Flexpray as my
24:33
forearm training, stuff like that to get my elbow strong
24:36
through the rehab protocol. And then at PT we did a lot of
24:39
shoulder work, kind of strengthening the muscles around
24:42
it, you know, some triceps, biceps, stuff like that.
24:45
We did a lot of blood flow restriction like that.
24:48
And then I think 12 weeks in, we introduced some football throws,
24:53
very light, maybe like 1015 feet, just a couple throws.
24:58
And we, we slowly built that up to I was, I was like long
25:02
tossing with the football in the parking lot, like, you know,
25:05
maybe four or five weeks later. So continue to build that out.
25:09
I got my shoulders really strong and we did a lot of landmine
25:12
press, but of course introduced like plyometrics with the elbow,
25:16
stuff like that. So we started doing some band
25:20
internal, external stuff like that to introduce that that kind
25:24
of stress to the elbow and we continue to do that.
25:27
And then I think I started my throwing program 1416 weeks in
25:33
somewhere in there and then 1616 weeks.
25:37
Yeah, with, with Driveline. Yeah, working.
25:40
With Dylan, right? Yeah, working with Dylan
25:42
Newcomer. So that's awesome.
25:44
Really helped me through that. Darryl facilitated that that
25:47
that connection. Dylan's the man.
25:49
I'm glad you guys were able to get connected.
25:51
We, we didn't really have a choice because you know,
25:54
insurance based PT works. Insurance doesn't care that he
25:58
wasn't like back to where he was beforehand.
26:00
They only cared about, OK, you can do what a normal person can
26:04
do, not what an athlete can do. So they did everything they
26:08
could do to to extend him as long as they can, but eventually
26:11
they cut us off. So my conversation with Darrell,
26:15
he was like, all right, it's time.
26:17
It's time to get you with someone in the baseball realm.
26:20
Here's Dylan's number. Call him.
26:22
Let's go. And then we went from there.
26:24
Yeah, So I, I guess brief pause now.
26:27
I'm going to shift this over to Tommy and then Andrew.
26:31
I I'm going to drill you to see if you feel any differently.
26:35
But from a dad's perspective, I, I have to know in this kind of
26:40
first, I guess, to the 16 week point, so about 4:00-ish months,
26:45
did you notice any shifts mentally or in the identity that
26:49
you saw from your son? Obviously went through a
26:52
traumatic experience. He still wants to be a big time
26:55
baseball player, but he's dealing with this massive set
26:59
back. So beyond the physical, I want
27:01
to know what you saw from either the mental or emotional side.
27:05
So man, that part was actually like really easy.
27:09
And that's one of the questions that everyone asks him.
27:11
Everyone asks him, how are you doing mentally?
27:13
How are you doing mentally? But I mean, he's broken his arm
27:15
a couple times. You know, he had some growth
27:17
plate issues. He had a tricep tendonitis.
27:19
He and every time he I'm going to come back stronger.
27:22
His mental state was great. I'm going to come back strong.
27:25
And every time he came back stronger.
27:27
And this time and, and especially with, with, with the
27:31
way it is baseball now, it's almost a foregone conclusion
27:35
that if you're, if you throw hard, that you're going to have
27:37
an elbow injury at some point. The guy who trains his pitching
27:41
coach and, and trainer Kevin, he, he had TJ when he pitched
27:44
and he pitched all the way up to AAA with the Angels
27:47
organization. So he had some advice to give
27:50
him and and other everyone around him, like his high school
27:53
coach pitched in AAA for the action play for the Durham
27:57
Bulls. And so he had about everyone
28:00
around and had great advice going towards all that.
28:03
So his mental state really never wavered.
28:05
I mean, once you're in it, you're in it.
28:08
There is no should have could or what is there's there's no man
28:12
only no, we're we're here now. Let's let's be in the present.
28:16
What are we going to do moving forward to make ourselves
28:18
better? And that's kind of how we
28:20
addressed it from the very beginning.
28:22
All right, well, here we go. So So what do we have to do?
28:25
We have to get your forearm stronger.
28:26
We have to strength shield everything so we don't go
28:29
through this again. And you know, we especially
28:32
didn't want to fail rehab because, you know, that's a
28:34
common misconception. Everyone thinks, oh, you get TJ,
28:37
you're going to come back throwing harder.
28:39
No, that that that's not reality.
28:41
If you look at the statistics and, and if you look at all the
28:45
case studies and stuff, so there's a lot of people who
28:47
don't come back and they definitely don't come back as
28:49
good as they were or better. And I think a lot of that has to
28:53
do with your rehab plan and where your mindsets at and all
28:56
that stuff. So we had really no choice but
28:59
to, to all right, here it is. We have to do this, we have to
29:03
do that, we have to do this. This is your life from this
29:06
moment until you're back on the bump.
29:08
And that that's kind of how we approached it.
29:10
So mentally, he's stayed pretty rock steady the whole time.
29:15
So Andrew, do you, do you feel like it took a bit to get back
29:19
to yourself or do you just kind of agree with that straight up?
29:22
Obviously you went through it. Your dad just witnessed.
29:25
Yeah, I pretty much agree with that.
29:27
I think like a lot of like my coaches asked like, hey, are you
29:31
doing OK 'cause they're saying a lot of like things that with
29:34
injuries is depression, it comes with depression.
29:36
I was like, no, honestly, I'm doing great.
29:38
Kind of just took it as another pump in the road because I've
29:41
dealt with pass injuries. So I'm, I wouldn't say I'm used
29:45
to it, but I just not deal with it.
29:47
So I just kind of took this bump in the road.
29:49
I kind of just knew I'll get back.
29:50
I'll stay on my routine and like, this isn't going to change
29:55
my future. I'm I'm just going to keep
29:56
pushing. So I don't think it really got
29:58
to me mentally. I will say it was hard and
30:01
playoffs for school ball when we had some close games and we
30:06
really just needed someone to be there and go in and just be
30:09
dominant. And I was really wishing I could
30:11
pitch then. So that was probably the hardest
30:13
times was in playoffs, watching other people pitch in tight
30:18
situations that I just love to pitch in.
30:20
But other than that, I'll say it's it wasn't bad mentally.
30:24
I I think I had a good mindset about it from the jump, which
30:28
also helped out a group of people around me.
30:30
Give me good advice, help me through it and stuff like that.
30:34
Just help me through this journey.
30:36
So yeah, I'll say I had a pretty good mentality about it from the
30:39
start. So yeah.
30:41
The really the hardest part was just watching your team try to
30:44
compete for a state championship because your team still made it
30:47
really far, right. We made it 2 state and then we
30:50
lost in state so. That's what I thought.
30:53
Dang, truly the hardest part was just missing out on competition.
30:56
It it wasn't Even so much what you were dealing with.
30:59
It was just seeing the seeing the guys you wanted to be with,
31:02
seeing your brother, seeing I guess Tommy, what you talked
31:06
about earlier, like your dream, seeing both boys playing on the
31:09
same field that. Would have been great, Yeah.
31:12
Like Dad's dream, you know, you got both your boys playing in
31:15
the state championship, you know, or, or in the playoffs.
31:18
They're just on the same team because they're there's so much
31:20
such an age difference that that really hasn't been much of an
31:23
option. Yeah, fingers, fingers crossed.
31:26
Maybe that'll work out in college ball.
31:28
Yeah. Hopefully that'd be awesome.
31:31
Yeah, well, or knock on wood. Thankfully I'm at a wood desk.
31:33
Yes, of of course. The bank on college.
31:36
But fingers crossed for the draft.
31:39
I just control what you can control.
31:41
Sorry for me getting ahead of you.
31:43
You stay in this good place mentally, I'll be the one that
31:45
freaks out for you. That's that's my job.
31:47
I know exactly. Yeah, that that's the beauty of
31:51
having all these people around you, Andrew.
31:52
You get to be even keeled and just let everybody else freak
31:55
out and worry about everything. Yeah.
31:58
I'm sure that's what it felt like at times with so many
32:00
people around you, whether it was physical therapist, whether
32:03
it's your teammates, your coaches, you got so many
32:06
different people in so many different places that I bet it
32:09
often felt like you were probably wondering why, Like
32:13
guys, this isn't a big deal. Like we got this.
32:17
Keeping them all on the same page was sometimes a challenge.
32:19
Getting everyone, everyone together on the same page.
32:22
Like the physical therapist, you know, he wanted to do his own
32:25
forearm exercises. And we're like, no, we, we, we
32:28
got something for that. So there was some management and
32:31
all of that. And the coach had a plan and his
32:35
other coach had a plan. And just getting everyone the
32:37
same page took a little bit of coordination, but it all had to
32:41
work for his benefit. Of of course, it's good to
32:45
recognize that the reason everybody had these plans is
32:49
because every person is meaning so well.
32:52
They're all trying to do their best by you.
32:55
And like that's a great problem to have that everybody was
33:00
working so hard in your corner that the worst thing that could
33:05
happen were people maybe I don't even want to call it
33:09
overstepping, but maybe going a little further than they need to
33:13
or, or working without discussion just because they
33:16
cared and they want to see you be your best.
33:19
So even even the fact that we can take that silver lining from
33:22
something that may have been difficult, I think is awesome.
33:25
It speaks to the people you surround yourself with.
33:28
Oh yeah, and, and, and you're right.
33:30
And I never once, never took it as anyone ever overstepping that
33:34
that wasn't the thing. And and believe me, I got some
33:37
spirited phone calls too, a couple a couple times.
33:39
And I was like, you know what, I agree, I'm with you.
33:43
We, we got to go. I got a call from Darrell.
33:46
Andrew will not throw baseball. I'll call Dylan.
33:48
We're we're not doing this. He's going to hit this mall
33:50
marker. He's going to hit that mall
33:51
marker. He's going to hit this mall
33:52
marker. He said, I'll be damned if he
33:54
fails. And I was like, absolutely, I'm
33:57
with you 100%. And you know, that puts the onus
33:59
back on him. Andrew has to do these things.
34:02
He's the one who has to do the work.
34:04
We can put the best plan in front of him.
34:06
We can all have the greatest intentions.
34:08
But unless he's willing to put the, the work in, unless he's
34:11
willing to do the job, then it's all for nothing.
34:14
And, and, and, and that's the part I understood from Daryl, We
34:18
executed the plan and we, we didn't waver.
34:20
And, and if we wouldn't have met those milestones, we wouldn't
34:22
have thrown, we weren't going to start our throwing routine until
34:24
we were at 70%. That was very, very adamant from
34:28
from you and Darrell and even Dylan, when we started talking
34:32
to him, he was like, all right, I want to see all your strength
34:35
metrics is first. I want to make sure you're
34:37
strong enough to throw a baseball before we start
34:39
throwing a baseball. And I think that's the thing
34:41
that a lot of people miss out on.
34:43
And I think that we're blessed to have you guys in a corner and
34:46
all that stuff. And because some folks, just not
34:49
all surgeons and not all are all created equal and you're not
34:53
going to get the best plan. They're just going to go on a
34:55
timeline. OK, it's been four months, start
34:57
throwing a baseball. But what have you done in the
35:00
meantime? Your, your, your basic physical,
35:03
insurance based physical therapy.
35:05
We got lucky. And even though it was insurance
35:07
based, the guy still knew what he had to do.
35:10
Some guys don't get that they're just all right, four months is
35:13
up. Start throwing a baseball or
35:16
you're going to have a high likelihood of a set back or re
35:19
injury. But you didn't create the
35:22
strength you needed to, to to move forward to throw.
35:25
So we didn't have that. We, we, we went ahead and we
35:30
strength shielded everything we could possibly strength shield
35:32
and these stronger now he's ever been.
35:34
And I think that's the thing we were missing before.
35:37
He was strong, yes, but you know as well as I do the body will
35:40
find a weakness. You.
35:42
You have one weak link. Your body will find it.
35:45
That's the thing now, strength. Shield everything you can.
35:47
All right, Forearm, strong, external, external rotation,
35:51
strong. Legs strong.
35:52
Trunk strong. Now you're like, all right, now
35:54
let's get all the mechanics together and see, see what we
35:56
can do. For sure.
35:58
Yeah. So I guess that's the perfect
36:00
segue. Speaking of mechanics, Andrew,
36:03
talk us through that throwing program.
36:05
I know you said kind of when it started, but since you focus so
36:09
much on strength and movement early on, was the initial part
36:14
of the throwing program even difficult?
36:18
No, I felt it was, it was pretty light.
36:20
I expect you to be like more intense in the beginning.
36:24
Start off not many throws is very light.
36:26
If you're familiar with the driveline pulse sensor, you
36:29
know, like the workload. I think my workload was that
36:32
like a four or like a three to start.
36:35
And and that's like not if you know anything about that, it's
36:37
not me throwing like not many throws at all.
36:41
So I thought it was going to be a lot heavier.
36:42
So it was really light at first because I was throwing a lot of
36:45
the football at PT before that, but it slowly worked its way up.
36:49
We started working back distance and volume and intensity.
36:53
And I, I really liked how it's velocity based.
36:55
So we tracked everything and slowly ramped up the velocity as
36:59
the program went on. I like how we, we kind of
37:02
trained velocity before volume and now we're starting to do
37:05
more volume work now that I'm at a high velocity.
37:09
So I just ramped my velocity up. Sometimes it went up by like 3.
37:13
So I started like then start like 45 mph.
37:16
There's like 15 throws at 45. Yeah, I was just flicking it.
37:20
And then I slowly ramped up. I was, I think I got on the
37:23
mound a month after, maybe a month, month and 1/2 after I
37:27
started the program, maybe two months.
37:30
And I was like, I think starting at 75 off the mound and it was
37:34
slowly moved up, went up to 77, then 80, then 83.
37:39
And I think we made a jump to like 86.
37:42
And I was always kind of above like my, my goal, like my goal
37:46
was 86. I was, I was most likely hitting
37:49
87. I don't know if it was just me
37:51
being competitive with it, trying to get over my goals, but
37:54
I was always kind of above my goal.
37:56
And now we ramped up and the goals like 92 and I've been up
38:00
to 92 so far. I, I like the way that you map
38:04
that out and you said you feel like you responded well to kind
38:09
of focusing on the, the intent first or the velocity first
38:14
before adding the volume. And do you think that beyond
38:19
just the physical adaptation, did you like that from your
38:24
mental approach? Like you were more able to chase
38:27
a number before, just like throwing for the sake of
38:30
throwing. I'm sure it kind of felt like
38:32
there was some competition in it as opposed to like, all right,
38:36
let's go out, let's bring the bucket and let's just throw
38:39
until we're tired. Yeah, I think it kind of made it
38:42
like brought up the fun in it. You know, I have goals kind of
38:44
be competitive. I'm not just out there or after
38:47
40 throws, you know, just lobbing it.
38:50
It's no, I got to hit this number today.
38:52
So I got to prepare, got you ready.
38:54
I got to hit this number. So it's just it's just fun.
38:56
Kind of brings the fun back into baseball.
38:59
I was doing a lot of rehabbing, not really playing baseball, so
39:02
it's just something to have fun with, kind of compete and just
39:05
try to get my goals each week as they kept getting higher and
39:08
higher. So yeah, I like that.
39:10
It is pretty fun. For sure.
39:12
And with 92 now as the new goal or the new benchmark in your
39:18
throwing program, for example, like how many times are you
39:22
supposed to hit 92? So he kind of gives me a range
39:26
like last week I think he was like 15 throws and I want you to
39:31
be he was like 88 to 94 trying to go as hard as you can.
39:36
I start a new workout program last week, so I was really sore
39:39
so I didn't didn't have the best outing, but I think I was like
39:42
8990 that day. Yeah.
39:44
So it kind of just gives me a range.
39:45
It's not like a set number, you know, hit 92 four times.
39:48
Nuts. Here's the range.
39:50
Try to stay on the top end of the range if you can.
39:52
So it's kind of what I've been doing.
39:54
I'll blow it by you, fastball. That's how he wears it.
39:56
Yeah, how many times have you grabbed that 92 so far?
40:00
I think I've grabbed it maybe like five times.
40:02
All on the same day? Or have you done it on separate
40:05
days? I think maybe 2 days.
40:08
It was mostly on one day. So I've been having trouble with
40:11
my formwork, like my sequencing isn't lined up right now.
40:15
So I've been. Doing a lot of drills, stuff
40:16
like that to get my sequencing right with my arm and my hips
40:19
because my arm is late right now and it's low.
40:22
So I'm trying to fix that and then I should have another few
40:24
low jump once I get that lined up.
40:27
Heck yeah. So that that might be a good
40:29
thing to get into here. So in your return, did you
40:33
struggle or have you struggled to regain movement?
40:37
That feels good. Like, do you feel like you're
40:39
throwing differently than you threw before?
40:42
So before I was struggling with the same problem where my elbow
40:45
was getting low on on landing, but when I my foot was landing
40:49
my elbow would be low and late. I think I picked right back up.
40:52
I was trying not to, but when I started throwing again, I kind
40:55
of went straight back to that, I guess from muscle memory.
40:58
So we're trying to, we're trying to fix that right now actually,
41:00
because my arm's low and it's late and it's causing sequencing
41:04
issues. So yeah, that's been the main
41:06
focus is get the arm up on landing.
41:09
Because it's not a strength issue at this point, right?
41:12
No, I mean, you've seen his flex row numbers.
41:14
He's he's hundred hundred hundred.
41:16
Everything else is is there. So he's strong enough to throw
41:19
100. We just have to it's, it's
41:21
mechanical at this point. It's all sequencing.
41:25
Then the part that Dylan brought up about that was he's so hyper
41:28
mobile, like he sent me a, a freeze frame of it.
41:31
His hips are completely facing home and you can see his chest
41:34
from second base and he's like, it's amazing mobility, but not
41:38
probably not the best position to be in.
41:40
So we're, we're working on some things to get all that synced
41:44
up. And then once that happens, he
41:46
should should be able to fire it a little bit harder.
41:49
So what are some of those drills or movements I guess that you're
41:53
working on now? Now it's your turn to be coach.
41:56
Educate everyone for a little bit if you don't mind.
41:58
I've been in the mirror just going through my throwing motion
42:01
with a heavy ball to create some feel.
42:03
So just a big pile ball, nothing too big, but just in the mirror
42:07
going through my throwing motion and videoing it, stuff like
42:10
that, just making sure it's up. And also recently I've been on
42:14
the mound. I'll have like my arms out here,
42:16
my legs up and starting to throw and I pull my arm back to start
42:20
flipping up as my back hip was starting to turn and rotate in
42:25
to kind of sync that, get the timing right.
42:27
And now I video all of that and I check it and I send it to my
42:30
pitching coach. He checks all of it and gives me
42:32
little cues and stuff to fix and stuff like that.
42:35
Like the dead man drill or like zombie?
42:37
I've heard people call it that like Frankenstein or something.
42:40
Like arm straight out in front of you.
42:42
Yeah, arms are up and I'm my legs up and I'll just flow down
42:46
the mound and then kind of time my arm flipping up in my leg,
42:49
twisting and coiling at the same time, so.
42:53
Are you at the point now that when you do it right, you know
42:55
it, or do you have to see it? No, I can kind of feel it.
42:59
I can tell just about the way it feels like it just feels so much
43:02
smoother and more natural. I hope I can get to doing that
43:05
every time, be more consistent with it, but it's still a work
43:08
in progress. Have you noticed any change in
43:11
slot? Like are you higher, lower,
43:13
roughly the same? I think it's around the same.
43:16
I don't think my slot has changed any.
43:19
Yeah, I know some people deal with that when they're when
43:21
they're coming back from injury. They just can't feel comfortable
43:25
from the spot they were in before.
43:28
Or maybe it was a mechanical change they made and they
43:31
recognize like, Oh no, that's not sustainable for me to be way
43:34
up high or way down low. I need to find something new.
43:37
So I just figured I'd ask, but kind of kind of along those
43:40
lines as well. So in this discovery process,
43:43
you now know when it feels right.
43:46
I'm curious if the ball feels any different coming out of your
43:49
hand, Like are you noticing different spin?
43:52
Do you have better efficiency, better carry?
43:54
Are you around it more maybe than you used to?
43:57
Because I know some people also then change the way they pronate
44:00
or supinate going into release. Have you, have you dealt with
44:03
any of that? So I haven't thrown on track,
44:06
man. So I can't really see any of my
44:08
efficiency and stuff like that. But I do know when I was, I was
44:11
just training my pitch and catch like a day or two ago, he said
44:15
he could tell when I was doing it right because the ball was
44:17
just flying out of my fingers. There's a lot more firm.
44:20
I was same effort, like I was trying to throw around the same
44:23
effort, but you could just tell it's dinner, right, Just from
44:25
the ball being more firm and gaining more VLA from dinner,
44:28
right. But I don't think the ball, like
44:30
it's not cutting or anything like that, Like nothing like
44:32
that has changed. So it's still just a high ride
44:35
fastball. So Tommy early, early in this
44:37
process, how was it to play catch with Andrew again?
44:40
Because I know it can't be, it can't be fun catching 85 + 90
44:44
plus, but it had to feel good that you could at least hang
44:48
with him for the like first few weeks of his throwing program.
44:51
Well, you remember the video I sent you from from when he
44:55
started throwing it like that was week 1 and he almost killed.
44:58
I was just videoing. He's playing catch with his
44:59
brother and he almost, he nailed me in the shin.
45:02
I didn't, I didn't even realize I sent you that video.
45:04
So you're like, yeah, probably not.
45:06
I went back and replayed it and I was like, oh, video.
45:08
I meant to send him, but he almost killed me with one of the
45:12
plyo balls because Dylan's got him throwing the seven ounce
45:15
plyo ball and the 14 oz plyo ball part of the warm up.
45:19
Well, I don't have any external rotation anymore, you know, at
45:24
my age. And through that 14 oz ball up
45:27
and I caught it up and I, yeah. So yeah, it almost took me
45:30
completely out. And he was like, I could throw,
45:33
I could throw against the wall if you want.
45:35
And I was like, no, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to
45:38
suck it up for now. But after that I was like, go
45:40
ahead and throw against the wall.
45:41
So you're throwing the heavy balls because, you know, I just,
45:44
I'm just not built for it anymore.
45:46
That just yanked the shoulder right out of socket might.
45:50
Have just tore my rotator cuff but we'll we'll figure it out.
45:54
Well, hey, maybe, maybe we'll just pass the throwing program
45:57
on to you, the everything that Andrew just went through, but
46:00
we'll just push it on to you once, once he's back and healthy
46:04
for. My throwing days are in the rear
46:05
view. I've been in the rear view.
46:08
Now I'm I'm I got a crow off to get it across the diamond.
46:12
We can play catch up close, but after that, like if you're long
46:15
toss, you got to take the bucket out there with you and I'm
46:17
essentially just catching. Yeah, just bring the fungo.
46:19
Just hit it back out there. I tried that once.
46:22
If I was if I was that good at fungo, I could probably do that.
46:25
Rain balls all over the field. That causes a bigger fight.
46:28
Yeah, yeah, more work. Well I I don't know if the
46:34
throwing days are behind you. You literally have the full year
46:37
long plan in front of you. It's just a matter of starting
46:40
Tommy. That would be a lot of work to
46:43
get get my shoulder working correctly.
46:45
Now I got 0 lay back so you know.
46:50
Well, I, I don't know if you have 0 lay back yet.
46:52
I mean, you're on the laid back podcast.
46:53
So that's that's at least got to account for something if you.
46:56
If you knew that ahead of time, I probably would have been
46:57
disqualified from the school. We should have you send a
47:00
picture before we put you on here.
47:02
Yeah, that's right. You got to have at least, I
47:05
don't know, a couple degrees of layback and I.
47:08
Andrew before before I get back to a serious question, I've got
47:11
to ask something a little bit lighter.
47:13
It's been with me ever since you talked about the football
47:16
throwing. Did your football coach at
47:17
school come up to you and be like, hey, looks like you might
47:20
be ready to go for September? We could use a guy.
47:23
No, I think they're kind of, they're used to me saying no.
47:26
They were begging two years straight, hey, we got a jersey
47:30
for you. You know, we got we got a helmet
47:32
for you right here. And I was like, no, I can't do
47:34
it. I got to focus on baseball.
47:36
So I think they just kind of accepted the fact that I I
47:38
wasn't coming back to football. And then it didn't help that I
47:41
was dunking in the basketball gym and the basketball coach
47:44
having to see it. So he's going to do that again.
47:47
And now he's trying to get me to play basketball.
47:49
So I'm like, no, I can't do that either.
47:50
I got to stick to baseball. We talked about that whole off
47:54
the ground thing. You're not allowed to do that.
47:56
Doesn't end well for. Me especially with people around
47:59
you the one time like, yeah, yeah, you can jump higher now
48:03
you can do all that stuff. You're going to try to do a 360
48:06
or like between the legs you can get rinsed off and then that's
48:08
that's where the real issue arises.
48:10
Can you imagine? And the coaches know it too,
48:12
that they're like, I mean, because he he can throw a
48:15
football, but before four injury, I don't know where
48:18
you're at right now. We can throw a football 70 yards
48:20
and and jump out the roof. We've got great hands.
48:22
So like you don't even have to throw a football.
48:24
Come play receiver at this point.
48:25
I think they'd be like, if you got hurt on a football field,
48:28
we'd all be idiots. It's probably best not to.
48:33
It's not a not a great look when the most athletic kid in the
48:36
school is only a pitcher. I know you were playing other
48:39
positions before, but you even don't like doing that very much.
48:45
Stay on the slope so he. Was a shortstop back in the day
48:48
and then then everyone fell in love with his arm and he hits.
48:53
Well he breaks. So he hit a bunch of home runs
48:56
before he went out. So his coach wants him to play
48:59
first base and hit and he's like, how about DH and pitch?
49:03
Yeah. I told him DH.
49:06
Hopefully that's the move, but I don't know.
49:09
Yeah. Well, let me know how that all
49:11
plays out. It's going to be hard to keep
49:12
you. Off put him at first base too.
49:15
I don't know if your school's big enough, Andrew, You might,
49:18
you might have to. Yeah, I told him I'll do
49:20
whatever is best for the team, but if it was up to me, I would
49:23
be DHN. So I have a feeling you could be
49:27
over that first base. Yeah, that's the right answer.
49:30
So, so back-to-back to the serious stuff, don't have too
49:33
much more serious stuff, but we'll we'll knock out a couple
49:36
more. So were there any setbacks in
49:38
the process? No I don't.
49:42
I was like expecting some setbacks but I don't really have
49:45
any. I know some people talk about
49:47
like their arms starts to hurt when they start ramping up, but
49:50
like my arm's been pain free throughout this whole process.
49:53
So that kind of surprised me. I was expecting something to
49:56
come up. But even like besides my arm,
49:59
like my body hasn't really been hurt.
50:01
I've had a little bit of groin, like my groin's been a little
50:03
tight, but I just start stretching it more And I was I
50:06
was good to guess I wasn't really a set back.
50:09
So I haven't like had any like big setbacks.
50:12
So I'm pretty happy with that. At least not yet.
50:15
Knock. On wood.
50:16
Yeah. In your desk is wood.
50:18
I got wood right here. Just well, Andrew, I apologize
50:22
for this one, but I, I want to give you a little warning for
50:27
pre embarrassment because I'm going to ask your dad to say
50:30
something nice about you here or hopefully it's prepping for
50:33
something nice and I'm holding out hope it is at least.
50:36
So Tommy, have you noticed any difference in like who Andrew is
50:41
as a man, as a person after going through this?
50:44
Or just, I guess all the injuries in general, Like
50:46
watching him endure and continue to chase down these dreams.
50:51
I don't know without fear of sounding super like
50:55
craggadocious. And you know how it is like
50:57
anytime someone talks to the dad of the kid, they're like, you
51:00
expect to hear, oh, he was born a star.
51:02
He throws 102 in his sleep. So he's kind of always been, we
51:07
always knew he was different and and kind of built for it.
51:10
Like if there's a situation that's too big for him, we
51:12
haven't found it yet and going through all this, but you put
51:17
together a good plan and then you just execute it.
51:20
So I don't know that he's had time mentally to even wary a
51:24
little bit. He just goes through it and and
51:26
even then work work diligent about the long holes are
51:28
diligent about the bands were diligent about even when he gets
51:32
home from workouts for like the first words out of my mouth,
51:34
they're like, hey, you need to get a post workout drinking you,
51:38
you need to get some food in you.
51:39
Everything is so regimen that that's kind of the way we've
51:43
been. And I don't know if that's from
51:45
a military background and that's just from everyone give me
51:47
advice and going, OK, we need to do XYZ, therefore we're going to
51:50
do XYZ. But I think he's definitely
51:53
taking a little bit more ownership.
51:55
Like I don't have to stand over and like before it was, hey, you
51:59
done your flex bro. Hey, have you eaten today or
52:02
hey, how many, how many grams of protein did we have today?
52:06
If you're not, if you're not trying to get better than then
52:08
what are you doing now? You're just being slappy.
52:10
So we can't. So he's he's taken more of it.
52:15
And now, and I'm like, hey of you.
52:16
Yes, hey of you. Yes, hey of you.
52:19
OK. All right.
52:20
And if he was faulting on into that, I know, I know for a fact
52:24
that that Darrell would pay. Dude, his numbers are dipping.
52:28
Hey, what's going on here? And I appreciate that because it
52:32
takes some of the load off me, you know, it takes some of the
52:34
load off happen to monitor that 24/7.
52:37
And now that he's taking ownership of it himself.
52:40
So I definitely see that growth and especially in the recruiting
52:43
process. So like we skipped a year.
52:45
I don't even know if we've covered that yet, but when he
52:47
went from a 2027 to 2026, we took advantage of the down year
52:51
with the UCL injury to knockout some extra classes during the
52:54
fall or during the spring and then during the summer and then
52:57
move him up to 2026. So we skipped his whole
53:00
sophomore year. So he went from not being
53:04
eligible to talk to these colleges to now eligible to talk
53:07
to these colleges and, and oh, and by the way, you need to come
53:09
do some visits and we, we need to talk about where you want to
53:13
go and what you want to do. And that that's been a little
53:16
bit different. Really thought we had more time
53:20
and then we didn't. So we sprinkled out on top of it
53:24
too. But he's made me very proud of
53:25
the way he's handled things. So, Andrew, yeah, I I saw the
53:30
the slight smile. Hopefully it wasn't too much
53:33
embarrassment in that answer. Do you feel any different?
53:36
Do you feel like this process is forced you to grow up a little
53:39
bit, or is it more just you had to take on more?
53:42
I think it's helped me, like, like you said, ownership, just,
53:46
you know, taking care of my routine, stay on the routine
53:49
without someone having to tell me to do it.
53:51
Just kind of take it on myself and get it done before someone
53:54
has to say something to do it. So I think that's kind of where
53:57
I've probably grown the most is just getting my stuff done
54:01
without someone having to be on me and telling me to do it and
54:04
reminding me. I kind of just get it done on my
54:06
own. But besides that, I think I'm
54:09
pretty much the same. I mean, he's still 16.
54:12
You can only expect so much from 16.
54:15
Right, right. Well, what what are the goals
54:18
for this coming season? My man, you, you should be back
54:21
on the field. So now let's talk about some of
54:24
the fun stuff. What are the plans ahead?
54:26
So I'm hoping to get up to maybe touch a 9596 somewhere in there,
54:31
you know, throw some gas and I want my strike percentage to be
54:34
really high. So the big goal for this whole
54:36
rehab thing has been thrust strikes, which I've actually
54:40
done really well with so far. My bullpens because in the past
54:44
I usually have good command, but sometimes, you know, it gets a
54:47
little loose and I start chunking them up a little bit.
54:50
Recently I've had really good commands.
54:52
That's kind of been the goal is just throw strikes and cut down
54:55
on the walks and be able to, you know, throw my curveball for a
54:58
strike, my change up for a strike, my fastball for a
55:00
strike. Just try to put it on the zone
55:03
when I can and when I want to. So that's kind of the goal is
55:06
just come in and get the VLO up. Well, this coming season you
55:10
don't have your brother to get on base and score some runs for
55:13
you. But how how's the team looking?
55:16
Should the should the team be able to to make a run again?
55:19
Oh yeah, So the team is basically the same, just minus a
55:22
couple seniors and my brother. My brother's a big part, but I
55:26
think I'll fill them in pretty well.
55:28
Hopefully he doesn't hear that, but but I think we'll be good.
55:33
We should make a run for state and hopefully we'll get the blue
55:36
map. But yeah, our team's looking
55:39
good. It's most of the same players
55:40
from last year, so just more developed, more mature.
55:43
So there's been some arguments with the past 10 years of if our
55:46
team's going to be better or not.
55:48
So I think we are. You know, none of the past 10
55:51
years think we are. So we'll see time.
55:52
Will only tell time will only tell.
55:55
So my my last real question for you, I guess my, my last major
56:00
question on this topic at least is what's the recruiting
56:04
timeline look for you now that you're reclassed?
56:06
I know you mentioned that right at the head of the podcast, your
56:09
dad just mentioned it there. So what's it look like now that
56:13
you, I guess you just lost a year of like camps and being
56:16
seen. You didn't really lose a year of
56:18
communication. Now you just got thrown into it.
56:22
Yeah, so it was kind of quick, kind of stressful a little bit,
56:25
you know, kind of came on me quick.
56:27
But I've been taking it slow. I wanted, I told myself I want
56:30
to get back to myself before I commit anywhere.
56:34
I've been communicating with some colleges.
56:36
I visited a couple colleges, but you know, I've, I've told them I
56:40
won't wait probably till the spring, just try to get back to
56:42
myself, get back to full 100% me before I commit myself to
56:47
someone for something that I'm not 100% doing yet.
56:50
They're all like wanting an answer, you know, like go to the
56:53
school and like, all right, first question, all right, where
56:55
are you at on commitment? We're ready to offer, but where
56:59
are you at on commitment? And that's where it starts.
57:01
And he's been pretty consistent with his message.
57:04
I want to get back on the pump. I haven't thrown a competitive
57:07
pitch in over a year. Let me get back into game mode.
57:10
I want to make sure that I'm me, but I'm, I'm where I'm at before
57:14
we, we move forward with a commitment to a college because
57:18
I all supported me the way. If you wanted to commit
57:19
tomorrow, I'd be like, fine. Or if you want to wait and go
57:22
visit a couple more places and, and really get a good feel for
57:25
what's out there, then we can do that.
57:28
But that's all on him. That's all.
57:30
Ultimately, that's got to be his decision and he's got to go with
57:33
his gut on all that. We're going to wait until
57:35
sometime in the spring or, you know, maybe in a little bit
57:38
after. For sure.
57:40
I, I respect that. I, I think you're handling that
57:42
well as a family. And then Andrew, you personally,
57:45
I think that's awesome. Control what you can control,
57:48
worry about your own business. And then once you're feeling
57:52
good, make a move. Then there's there's no no
57:55
reason to bring the future to the present if you don't have
57:58
to. Well said.
58:01
That was perfect. That perfect nugget right there.
58:04
Well, thanks. It just hey, I, I got it from
58:06
your son. He said it.
58:08
I I just summarized it. No, you're underselling that
58:11
because I know something about tomorrow's you, you, you, you
58:14
guys are are very, very talented at turning a phrase.
58:18
Like Daryl is going with me and I actually had to stop in the
58:20
middle of the conversation and like, did you throw that nugget
58:23
out there? Because that's a, that's a, I
58:25
need to go on a billboard that on purpose.
58:28
Did you or you just come off the cuff with that?
58:30
He just threw out strength before throwing.
58:32
We were in the middle of conversation.
58:34
He was like strength before throwing.
58:35
And I was like, why isn't that everywhere every high school?
58:40
So common sense once you go down this path, but you know how many
58:45
people have have absolutely no idea what that means or, or how
58:48
to implement that. And you know, the medical
58:51
industry would dry up if people took that approach.
58:54
Not a total sidebar and total rabbit, but you guys, you you
58:58
guys are very, very talented and turning phrase.
59:01
I got it from somewhere. I had to.
59:03
I I it must be hereditary or something, just like the
59:05
baldness. Well, you know.
59:10
So that that kind of concludes my more serious questioning.
59:14
Andrew, this this honestly might be the toughest question I ask
59:17
you all podcast. But if baseball didn't exist,
59:23
there's nowhere in the world. What do you think you would want
59:26
to do with your life? Honestly, I have no clue.
59:30
Yeah, that's that's a tough question.
59:32
But I guess it'd be different because I wouldn't be growing up
59:34
playing baseball, so I don't know.
59:35
My whole life would be different.
59:37
But yeah, I don't know what to say to that.
59:40
So what's your favorite subject in school?
59:43
Probably. Math probably comes the easiest
59:45
to me, yeah. Maybe something engineering
59:49
maybe. Maybe turn that into some
59:51
architecture. I don't know, maybe I'll answer
59:54
it for you. No way this dude will get out of
1:00:00
school as quickly as he possibly can.
1:00:03
Yeah, nothing with too much college, so yeah.
1:00:08
Well, you got you got a few years of that, yeah.
1:00:11
Yeah. But yeah, so I, I don't know,
1:00:13
maybe when you were a kid, what, what other sports were you
1:00:16
playing? What?
1:00:17
What piqued your interest back before you went diamond only?
1:00:22
I played some football. I think I played a season of
1:00:24
basketball and I didn't like it. I like black top basketball.
1:00:28
Not really. It's like organized and they can
1:00:30
say I'm traveling. I played football until I think
1:00:36
when COVID hit, that's when I kind of shut down on football.
1:00:39
I was just like, you know, I'm just going to leave in the past
1:00:41
and just decided to focus on baseball.
1:00:44
Yeah, it was really just football, baseball and a little
1:00:47
bit of basketball, but I didn't really like it.
1:00:49
Oh yeah, I did do some MMA when I was little.
1:00:53
Oh my gosh. That's actually what got to
1:00:55
started in sports. No way.
1:00:58
The the gym, I was working out, a guy had a Dojo in there and he
1:01:02
was doing a bunch of different mixed martial arts and he had a
1:01:05
kids class and I put both the boys in there and they that
1:01:08
started them on working out and fitness.
1:01:11
Really physical fitness and baseball took over from there.
1:01:15
We actually quit doing that to play baseball.
1:01:18
Oh my gosh, this is heck burying the lead.
1:01:20
This might be something else we need to get into.
1:01:23
I we're we're about to get super off topic with all the questions
1:01:26
on this, but I, I don't know, maybe maybe you should have
1:01:30
stayed in it so you could have gotten some cauliflower ear.
1:01:32
That would be real intimidating on the mound.
1:01:36
Yeah, that would be intimidating.
1:01:37
I don't know. That wouldn't look the best.
1:01:39
I don't know if you if you had like a permanent scar like on
1:01:42
your lip and some cauliflower ear, I think that would make 95
1:01:45
look like 105 it. Already does.
1:01:50
I do really appreciate the time today that really does end the
1:01:54
line of questioning for me. The defense rests.
1:01:57
Hopefully you guys feel OK about this.
1:01:59
I want to say thanks again for coming on sharing the story.
1:02:01
Any parting words guys? It's been a lot of fun.
1:02:04
Thank you. Thanks for having.
1:02:05
Us of course. Well, can't wait to follow the
1:02:08
season, see how that goes. We still have our winter arc to
1:02:11
get through. I know 95 is going to fall, 92's
1:02:14
got to fall first I suppose, but 95 will fall and then state
1:02:19
championship here we come. Yep, that's the plan.
1:02:23
Well, thanks again, guys. And to all the listeners out
1:02:26
there, thanks for laying back with us.