Latest / The Layback Podcast / Jackson Bergman, Indiana University RHP - formerly University of Toledo (Ep. 67)

Transcript

Jackson Bergman, Indiana University RHP - formerly University of Toledo (Ep. 67) · The Layback Podcast

0:00
Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Lay Back podcast.
0:02
Joining us today is right-handed pitcher, new signee of the
0:08
Indiana baseball program. He's the newest Hoosier.
0:11
This is Jackson Bergman. Jackson and I got connected
0:15
initially from I guess a mutual buddy of ours, Luke Krauss.
0:19
Luke Krauss, former podcast guest, left-handed pitcher at
0:22
BGSU. But Jackson was dealing with a
0:26
little bit of an elbow thing. I think Luke and Luke's father,
0:29
who is a chiropractor out in western Ohio, suggested Jackson
0:33
take a look at Flexpro grip. And ultimately, we hit the
0:37
ground running from there. So we can talk a little bit
0:39
about Jackson's rehab from his elbow hiccup later on in the
0:44
podcast. But Jackson, before I even let
0:48
you give your bio, I want to cover how close are you to being
0:54
the most famous person from Hicksville, OH.
0:56
I don't think I'm as close as you think I am because when I
1:00
was in elementary school, there was a football player who walked
1:03
on a Wyoming and I think after his first year he was, I think
1:08
he was like a three-year captain on the football team, earned a
1:11
scholarship. And I guess he's he's probably
1:13
like the the Hicksville legend. So because obviously he grew up
1:18
outside of Hicksville, so I came to Hicksville in high school or
1:21
elementary school. So it wasn't like I was
1:23
Hicksville born and raised. But yeah, I would say, I'd say
1:27
he's the the number one. Your bio on all your college
1:31
rosters says you're from Hicksville, correct?
1:34
Yeah. Yeah, from Hicksville.
1:35
No, I was there in 4th grade. So those are most of my most of
1:40
my life, but. Yeah, I encourage everyone to go
1:43
give Hicksville, OH a little Wikipedia search.
1:46
Read about the history, but I I would have to think you're not
1:50
that far off from being the most famous person to be from
1:54
Hicksville. I don't know.
1:57
I mean, I've never thought about that so.
1:59
Yeah, I I thought about it this morning while I was grocery
2:01
shopping and prepping for the podcast.
2:03
Hicksville, OH has 3500 people there so small town, great place
2:10
to grow up but. So with that, let's take it
2:14
away. Hit us a little bit with your
2:16
bio, let us know the background and I guess even how you ended
2:20
up now as a commit for the Hoosiers.
2:23
So I guess I'll start. I'll just start with when I was
2:27
younger, but obviously my dad played seven years in the big
2:31
leagues before I was born. So that kind of jumps through my
2:35
baseball career because obviously it's like I played
2:38
baseball. So he kind of wanted me to play
2:41
baseball and after I started playing it, I loved it.
2:43
So I guess, yeah, pretty basic. I played baseball since I was
2:47
like 3, Little League, all that stuff.
2:50
Then in high school, my freshman year was when I started playing
2:54
like actually summer ball. So like with the travel team.
2:56
So played on like a travel team. My freshman year of high school.
3:00
It was fine. Didn't really know what I was
3:02
going to do yet. Sophomore year was really
3:04
looking forward to the season. I was a lot better in freshman
3:07
year and then COVID hit, so no baseball sophomore year.
3:10
And then there was junior football, basketball, baseball.
3:14
And junior was like, I guess my biggest jump I guess because
3:20
freshman year I threw like 20 innings with probably like a six
3:24
or 7 ERAI don't know, not not too good.
3:26
But then junior year I think I threw like 60 with around, I
3:32
think it was like 7580 strikeouts.
3:34
So I had a really good year and then I played for, you've
3:37
probably never heard of it, the River Bandits, but it's like.
3:40
No, I know the river bandits. Being the Northwest Ohio guy,
3:43
it's like the Northwest Ohio. Anyone who might want to go play
3:47
college baseball just plays on that team.
3:50
I don't know. It's really fun because like
3:52
there's probably like four or five guys I played against after
3:56
high school and my college and stuff.
3:57
Like Kraus was on our team, Newman was on our team, Jirger
4:01
from Defiance went to Ohio, he was on our team.
4:04
So I mean, that was really fun. But my junior year I went to a
4:09
couple PBR showcases just because like I wasn't talking to
4:12
anyone and I was like, well, I got one more full year until I
4:16
have to go to college. So if I want to do this, it's
4:18
going to have to probably start pretty soon.
4:20
So I went to APBR Showcase in the beginning of June and that's
4:25
when Coach Mack from Toledo saw me.
4:28
So he gave me a call after that and just talked a little bit.
4:31
Nothing really came from it. And then there was like another
4:35
month, went to another PBR showcase and he was there again.
4:38
And that's when he was like, hey, let's bring out a visit.
4:42
And then went on the visit. Coach Rob gave me like a spot on
4:47
the team the next year, PWO walk on spot.
4:51
But I was like, either you're going to play Toledo or or I'm
4:55
going to go just do school because that's not a big part
4:58
that I obviously get into later. But so yeah, Toledo was a great
5:01
fit freshman year. I'm pretty sure most freshmen
5:05
who show up on campus are like trying to be so good and then
5:08
they kind of struggle a little bit.
5:10
But my freshman year struggled. I think it was more so just like
5:15
I was too scared of giving up a hit to try to attack hitters,
5:19
which is the opposite of what I do now because like, I was just
5:21
trying to not give up a hit, which led the walks and more
5:26
hits, obviously. And I'm like, all right, I need
5:30
to throw a strike now. And they know a fastball's
5:32
coming and then it's a little bit easier to hit when it's like
5:34
that. But yeah, freshman year I was
5:37
pretty much on the track to red shirt.
5:39
And then like a month left in the season, Coach Rob and Coach
5:42
Sheehan, who was my pitching coach freshman year, were like,
5:45
hey, what do you think about getting some innings to end the
5:47
season, go into the next year running instead of pretty much
5:50
being like another first year of college baseball?
5:53
So I was like, all right, let's let's do it.
5:55
So I threw, I think it was like 8 or 9 innings my freshman year
5:59
all in like the last month. And then went in the summer ball
6:03
start a little bit there with command.
6:05
I think I had like 27 or 28 walks and like 26 innings.
6:08
So it's not, not. Ideal.
6:10
What team were you on that first year?
6:12
The coffee paints, that's the whole other grind.
6:17
It's 8 hour bus rides and you're staying in Super eights with
6:21
three other dudes. And it was, it was an
6:23
interesting experience. And then that summer I struggled
6:28
a little bit so I worked with the Mud Hens.
6:33
Pitching coach was my dad's best friend when they were playing
6:36
together in San Diego. So he obviously coaches in
6:40
Toledo. So a couple times I would like
6:41
go up in the summer, like before the season started or the fall
6:46
started and throw like a bullpen or two with him.
6:48
And that's when he taught me the sinker, which is like basketball
6:52
now, and I've been throwing it ever since he taught me that.
6:55
And then he gave me like a couple of cues to work on
6:57
because I was flying open with my glove side a lot.
7:00
So I was like missing here with everything.
7:03
And then I was trying to get it more in the hula hoop of the
7:06
zone. And then we had our pitching
7:08
coach, Matt Silverman come in and he helped me a lot with the
7:11
mental side, which I think was the biggest thing for me because
7:13
once I got over the fact of people are going to hit the
7:17
baseball, it's inevitable It'd be better to attack them and
7:21
work on your strengths rather than trying not to give up hits.
7:23
So that was the big thing my sophomore year and then my
7:27
sophomore year I had started out in the bullpen like 1 inning a
7:32
weekend for the first like four or five weeks.
7:34
My first outing of that season was Friday night at Mercer.
7:40
So that was that was awesome because there's a whole bunch of
7:42
people there. It was opening night.
7:44
It went pretty good. I think I had 4-3 or four
7:47
strikeouts and 1.2. So that was a really good
7:50
outing. Started the season off really
7:51
good. So I was in the bullpen as like
7:54
just like short relief for the first four or five weeks.
7:57
And then I started going like 3 to 4 innings out of like long
8:03
relief kind of the next 3:00-ish weeks.
8:08
And then one of our starters got hurt a little bit so he couldn't
8:12
start. So then I got kind of thrown
8:13
into the starting role. The first couple starts were
8:16
weird because it was like I was trying to like be a whole other
8:19
pitcher, but it's like the same. I just thought about it like the
8:21
same thing. Instead of the 5th inning, I'm
8:24
just throwing in the first inning.
8:26
So that helped me a little bit that year because it was like I
8:29
was trying to make something out of nothing and I just needed to
8:33
calm down the pitch a little bit.
8:34
But I had a couple good starts in the year I had, I think it
8:38
was 6 innings, one run against Notre Dame, 5 innings, one run
8:42
against Eastern was like my first, like real, like actually
8:45
good start. And then in the post season in
8:50
our tournament was we played Miami game three and ended up
8:55
going 8 and a third that game. So that was the most my pitch
9:00
limit before then was like 75 or 80.
9:03
And then that game I was going to save the bullpen and
9:05
everything. And I think I ended up from like
9:08
or so and I was like, arm feels fine, I'm going to go back out
9:13
there. But yeah, it was it was fun.
9:15
We ended up winning that game, but then we lost the next one.
9:18
So but we need to save the bullpen.
9:19
So I did what I could. I think I was like 55 pitches
9:24
through 6 and then I gave up a lot of long at bats the next two
9:29
innings, kind of build that pitch.
9:32
But it was going really good. And then I was going to go play
9:35
summer ball in Virginia with Culpepper with one of my team
9:40
mates, but I was like, my arm is really sore.
9:43
I want to take a little time off.
9:45
And that was also, I was studying for the DAT, which is
9:49
like the MCAT for dental school. So I'm studying for that.
9:51
In the summer. I'm giving pitching lessons up
9:53
at Toledo twice a week for 10 hours a day.
9:56
That was a grind, but it was really fun.
9:58
I enjoyed the relationships I made with like the kids and
10:01
stuff. That was fun.
10:03
That summer when I started to rent back up again, I was like,
10:07
my arm does not feel like I think it should after taking a
10:12
month and a half off of throwing.
10:14
And that's when I was like, all right, I don't know what's going
10:19
on, but I'm going to try to figure it out.
10:21
My senior of high school I had some forearm pain but it was
10:23
like this part of my forearm and I went to Luke Kraus is bad
10:29
chiropractor and I don't know what he did but after like a
10:33
week and 1/2 it was feeling pretty much back to new.
10:36
So I was like might as well just go see him again see if he knows
10:40
what's up with it. So I went there and he was many
10:43
told me about the Flexburg grip and I was like, I'll give that,
10:45
I'll give that a look because I'm like looking for anything to
10:48
try to help my arm feel better and hit the fall running I
10:51
guess. But I think that's kind of when
10:53
I got in contact with you was like Julyish last summer and
10:58
then started that out. But I mean, it was like I was
11:03
fighting uphill battle trying to throw with my elbow hurting.
11:07
And it got to a good point after I was using the Flex Pro for I
11:11
think it was about like a month or so.
11:13
It was feeling good. But then like I think when I got
11:17
back on campus I threw like 2 bowl pants and I was like this
11:20
does not feel good. Right, not exactly where it
11:23
needed to be. I was like for the amount of
11:26
time I took off after the season, it's not feeling how
11:30
it's supposed to. So we took like 2 weeks off of
11:34
throwing and try to get back into it.
11:36
Like 2 days later. It was like maybe not two days,
11:38
like 3 days later I was like trying to like lob the baseball
11:41
like 50 feet and I was like, Oh my gosh, this does not feel
11:44
good. Like my elbows throbbing.
11:46
We go and see the doctor at Toledo and he said it was like
11:52
there's definitely like some pain and stuff there, but he was
11:54
like give it another like 2 weeks, don't throw up for two
11:57
weeks and then try to go back into it didn't work.
12:00
And I was like, all right, let's go back to the doctor, see
12:01
what's wrong. And then we get there and he's
12:04
like, all right, there's definitely something wrong if
12:07
you can't throw a baseball at 50 feet without pain after taking a
12:11
month and a half off. So we're into doing PRP
12:14
injection, which I know if you know about that or I should like
12:18
explain it a little bit for the people listening.
12:20
You probably don't know what it is, but pretty much like they
12:22
take your blood, they spin it out to get your platelets, which
12:26
is in your plasma, which is I guess like the healing stuff in
12:29
your blood. They take that like concentrated
12:32
platelets and put it back into like the site of the injury to
12:35
kind of promote healing. And the first three days is like
12:38
you can't move your arm because it's so stiff.
12:40
And it's like, Oh my gosh, this is, this sucks.
12:44
But after two weeks of like just really light rehab, just like
12:49
moving my arm and like 1 or 2 LB weights and like bands and stuff
12:53
with our PT team, it started to feel better.
12:56
And I was like, this is promising.
12:58
So we did that for two weeks and then we had another two weeks of
13:01
like heavy PT to just try to get like the rest of my arm ready to
13:05
throw because like it was a bunch of like back of the
13:08
shoulder stuff and a bunch of rotational stuff because I
13:11
haven't been doing that since last May.
13:14
So it was like, all right, we have to get ready for this.
13:16
And the plan, the whole plan was to be ready to throw by week 1.
13:19
So it was like we're trying to fit a whole bunch of stuff in.
13:23
We're trying to fit the whole fall and preseason into five
13:27
weeks until the season starts. And if I can cut you off real
13:30
quick, so I'm sure what's going through your head every time you
13:34
take? Well, first the initial month
13:36
and a half off, which I don't know if that initial six weeks
13:40
was planned to be 6 weeks, but you probably thought like I'm
13:43
going to feel great coming off of this.
13:45
And then you take the additional 2 in the additional 2 in the
13:49
additional 2 and you're probably starting to like like through
13:53
the mine like this isn't going right.
13:56
We have three months until the season starts and I still can't
13:59
throw a baseball over 20%. It's like, yes, it could be
14:03
interesting. So, but yeah, then after the
14:05
PRP, it was like 5 or 6 weeks of just like a throwing program.
14:10
Like the first three weeks was literally just going like this
14:14
into a net and trying to get my arm moving again to like the
14:17
right arm path, which was that was tough.
14:21
That sucked. Those were some ugly throws that
14:24
you had sent me on video. My arm is like stuck behind here
14:28
and it's not going up. And I'm like, Oh my gosh.
14:31
And it was like, I know that it's not looking how it's
14:34
supposed to, but I don't know what to do in my mind to get it
14:37
to feel like it is. So that was like for three weeks
14:41
and then it was like, all right, we're going to try to like ramp
14:43
it up a little bit because the it's January 2nd, the season
14:47
starts in the second week of February.
14:49
Then it was more so like try to lengthen it out a little bit,
14:54
stay on the throwing program because obviously it's going to
14:56
be sore. But you kind of have to work
14:57
through some of that to an extent to kind of build volume
15:01
and stuff like that, which my trainer and stuff helped me out
15:04
a lot with and it was really good.
15:06
But my first bullpen was the first week back on campus in the
15:11
spring semester. Most people listening know that
15:14
it's like you got 3 or 4 weeks in January and early February
15:18
and then the season starts. So it's like my first, my first
15:21
time on a mound was like January 10th or 11th or so.
15:25
And I'm like, all right, we'll see how it goes.
15:30
And then I faced after like 2 weeks of bullpens, I was up to
15:36
like 25 pitches in my bullpens and throwing off speeds and
15:40
stuff. And then it was like, all right,
15:43
let's put hitters in there to just stand there, but they're
15:46
not going to swing obviously because you're still throwing
15:48
bullpens. So I did that for like, I did
15:51
that for two bullpens. And then all right, we play
15:55
Oregon in two weeks. You might need to like throw a
15:58
live AV or something like that. So Tuesday before we left for
16:03
Oregon I faced 6 batters and that was the first time I faced
16:08
A batter since my start in the tournament.
16:12
And I was like, I'm just going to throw whatever I can at these
16:14
guys and try to get them out because we play Oregon and five
16:18
days so. So you were 8 1/2 months removed
16:22
from your last that bat? Yeah.
16:23
Yeah. And then so I did that on
16:25
Tuesday. We leave on Wednesday to go to
16:27
Oregon. And then my first, like I would
16:30
say that my first like 5 first four weeks of this season were
16:33
pretty much just like an opener to like get my work in as a
16:38
starter because like warming up and everything would take me
16:41
longer than most people because like my arm, I wanted to make
16:44
sure it was feeling good. So but like having to do a warm
16:47
up in like the middle of a game and like not knowing if I'm
16:50
going in in the 6th or the 7th was tough.
16:52
That was really good with what they did.
16:53
I would just like throw a three one inning in Oregon, 1.2 at
16:57
High Point, 3 at Richmond, 3 at Miami, four and a third at Ball
17:02
State. And then it was like I was built
17:05
up enough to like be an actual starter.
17:07
But it was weird because like obviously in the fall and like
17:10
pre season is like when you work on your pitches and executing
17:12
stuff and maybe like you had like a change up or a cutter or
17:15
something like that. But I was like, all right, I got
17:18
my sinker slider and curveball right now I'm going to throw
17:21
that. And then I started working my
17:24
change up during the year 10 weeks in because like I wasn't
17:27
getting, I wasn't getting like strikeouts as much as I wanted.
17:31
And like righties, I was like 70% fastball just, I mean my
17:37
synchroid righties was really good.
17:38
But I was like, maybe we can like add a change up to righties
17:42
right on right change up, who knows.
17:43
And me and Lando would like joke around with that like for like 2
17:46
weeks before we actually did it. And then we were like, let's
17:49
just do it. Screwed.
17:51
It's time so. It's like we were facing ETSU
17:54
and like I didn't throw my change up before then and then I
17:57
think that game it was like 45% change up and I had like 5 KS on
18:01
change UPS. I was like, let's just keep
18:04
doing this. So we just ended up like doing a
18:07
lot of change UPS. We should call a quick time out
18:10
again to say I don't think everything you did might be the
18:16
most recommended process for any.
18:18
Picture No, I would not you obviously.
18:21
Went into this with a lot of calculated risk.
18:24
And I know we're going to talk more about your academic
18:27
pursuits separately, but I would have to guess in this entire
18:32
process, you're probably thinking, well, I'm going to go
18:35
to dental school anyways at some point.
18:37
So I'm like like my plan is to go to dental school after my 4th
18:41
year. So like, why not just go and
18:43
pitch and do what I can with whatever I have and how I feel
18:48
now Obviously I would have loved the whole fall and spring to
18:51
build some Velo and work on pitches and executing below the
18:55
zone, which was a struggle for me this year.
18:57
Sometimes I threw way too many strikes, but like when it was
19:00
like 2 two, I would love to just like put it outer black at the
19:04
bottom of the zone, but like sometimes it would just leak
19:07
over the middle and then I'd get like a ground ball instead of a
19:09
swing and miss, which like it's fine.
19:11
Then my tracker numbers were lower.
19:13
But I mean sometimes it'd still be a ground ball out instead of
19:16
a strike out, which can't complain.
19:18
You can only do so much. Just metrically not as cool.
19:22
Yeah, Metrically, statistically, it's like, all right, you don't
19:26
have the strike out an inning. Instead you have like a bunch of
19:30
ground. You have two ground balls an
19:31
inning, so. But yeah, you, you might be
19:33
leading the nation in ground ball rate, but you are bottom
19:38
third in K rate. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
19:42
Which more double plays, I guess.
19:43
So you can't argue with that. But it was weird, obviously,
19:47
just trying to like in the fall you're working on things in like
19:51
scrimmages, and I was like working on things against like
19:54
Ball State. And I was like, all right.
19:56
Yeah, in a game that actually means something for back
20:00
agreement play down. The line exactly.
20:02
And I was like, all right, I'm going to do everything I can
20:03
with whatever I have. I'm not going to make excuses
20:06
that I haven't thrown to a batter since last May.
20:10
I'm just going to go pitch against Oregon and see how it
20:11
goes. So yeah, the season ended.
20:15
I guess I'll touch on the monsoon game that I had to pitch
20:18
in. Well, don't worry, we're going
20:20
to dedicate a lot of time to the monsoon game, but that's going
20:23
to be the second time this has talked about on the podcast.
20:26
I, I know you've had a lot going on in the past couple weeks
20:29
here, which we led on to with the IU commitment.
20:34
Where you're at currently with this AI generated background or
20:37
what looks like one behind you which is not actually an AI
20:41
generated background, but you. Yeah, beautiful, beautiful
20:45
stuff. You've been all over the country
20:47
obviously in these last couple of weeks, but your boy Lando
20:52
made an appearance on the podcast and we opened up with
20:55
the monsoon game so that before I even let him give his intro, I
21:00
made him talk about the monsoon game.
21:02
So trust me, there is a dedicated segment to that.
21:05
So if you want to go back to talking about debuting change
21:09
UPS mid season and just taking risks, by all means take your
21:14
time getting in the monsoon game because we're going to talk
21:16
about it. So yeah, I'll just go back to
21:19
when I started throwing the change UPS, I guess.
21:22
So I guess ETSU was like the first change up game I had and
21:26
me and Lando were like, that's working really good.
21:29
Let's not not throw change UPS. I think I might have thrown like
21:34
2 right on right change UPS my whole life up until ETSU.
21:37
And then I think like the last five weeks was like 30% change
21:43
ups to righties, which I mean, it was good for me because
21:46
they're looking at the sky report even after like 2 weeks
21:48
of it and they're like, all right, he's like 5% change ups
21:51
to righties. But in reality, the last, the
21:53
last two weeks it was like 30%. Yeah.
21:55
But like working on executing pitches and like working on
21:57
pitches mid season is like not a fun thing to do, especially like
22:01
when you're just trying to, you're trying to win games and
22:05
like you're working on a change up week 12.
22:07
So that was that was interesting.
22:09
And then, yeah, we have the monsoon game, which we're we're
22:12
going to talk about. And then three days later I
22:14
started against Ball State in the tournament.
22:17
We ended up winning that game-winning two more games and
22:20
making it to the championship, which was really cool 'cause it
22:22
was like the first time Toledo was in the championship since
22:26
like 2003 or 4 maybe. I think it was like 20 years.
22:31
Getting in the losers back is tough to tough to claw back out
22:35
of because we were on our 6th game and Miami was playing their
22:39
third game. So it was like, all right, we're
22:42
going to throw whatever we got at you and do our best.
22:45
But yeah, it was it was a fun season.
22:48
And then after that, I came down to Morehead City, and that's
22:53
where this place. Visual for the visual crew, it's
22:56
beautiful for the non visual crew.
22:58
We're staring off at the Atlantic Ocean behind Jackson
23:03
here. The ocean is over the island.
23:06
This is oh. My bad, my bad.
23:08
This is the mainland and then it's called the Sound, and then
23:11
there's the island and then there's the ocean.
23:13
But my bad. Yeah, No, it's good still.
23:16
It's still still really pretty. But yeah, so I'm down here
23:20
making, I think. I think the way they do it here
23:23
is like your starts are like twice to the lineup.
23:25
So whatever that is ends up being is whatever I throw for
23:31
the week, I guess. But yeah, so then obviously I
23:34
want to go to dental school after this next year.
23:37
So I was at Toledo for three years and then I was like
23:41
graduated, yeah, graduated in three years.
23:44
So then I was like, all right, I need to find a program to do for
23:48
next year. And I love Toledo.
23:50
So I was like looking at the Toledo programs and I was like,
23:54
none of these are really going to help me either build my
23:57
application or help me in dental school.
24:00
So I was like, it's probably not going to work.
24:02
Which really sucked because I love Toledo and I was there for
24:05
three years and would have loved another year there.
24:07
Tried to enter the transfer portal and through that the main
24:12
three schools I were I was talking to was Ohio State,
24:14
Cincinnati and Indiana. Yeah, I went to Indiana and it
24:17
was everything I could have wanted.
24:20
I had the program I wanted. I mean, their stuff is insane.
24:24
They're going to have the first Big 10 pitching lab this year.
24:28
I don't know if you knew that or not, but they're going to have
24:30
the force plate mound and their bullpen with the track man and
24:33
the advertronic cameras and stuff like that.
24:35
So that's going to be really huge for the pitching
24:37
development there. And it was just a perfect fit.
24:39
Like the coaches were what I was looking for, the strength
24:42
training is what I was looking for, nutrition, everything like
24:45
that. It was like, how can I not go
24:48
here for one year? It's an awesome program and the
24:51
coaches are great and it'll be really fun.
24:53
I don't know really how much more you want me to get in with
24:55
that, or if you have any questions or anything like that,
24:57
I'll be happy to answer it. Plenty of questions.
25:00
One gripe I have to throw out there, I don't know even know if
25:03
it's a real gripe because I left the state of Ohio to play all my
25:06
summer ball, but I I need to ask.
25:10
So the first travel team you played on way back, I know we're
25:13
going back to the intro of this. Do you remember the name of that
25:16
first travel team you played? On Yeah, it was the Midwest
25:20
Prospects. Was that a Columbus?
25:22
So all. Right.
25:23
So a real travel team like your first experience with it is like
25:26
you're, you're legit travelling. You're driving 2 1/2 hours just
25:29
to play we. Were in Columbus a lot.
25:31
We played a couple tournaments in Cincinnati.
25:35
Most of them were around the Columbus area.
25:36
So that was really fun and we had, I mean, I still talk to a
25:39
bunch of the dudes that we played with, but like there's
25:42
two guys on my team that play at Eastern Michigan now, one guy
25:46
that plays at Memphis, me. And then there's like a bunch
25:49
of, I don't know about a bunch, but there's a bunch of guys who
25:52
are still playing ball. So it was, it was a really fun
25:54
summer. I played on like, I don't know
25:58
if it was a travel team, but like I played on the Northwest
26:00
Ohio Big Dogs when I was younger.
26:02
For a year. But that was like you're staying
26:06
in this area, you're only going up to Toledo.
26:09
So like that I don't know if I would classify.
26:10
It in Finley a lot. Yeah, like it.
26:13
It was just like a summer, right kind of league.
26:17
And then the follow up though, and then you said if you're, if
26:20
you were going to play Northwest Ohio or play college baseball
26:24
out of Northwest Ohio, you probably played for the River
26:27
Bandits. I, I was going to say hand up.
26:30
You might want to say the Western or pretty much if you're
26:34
outside of Lucas County, you played for the River Bandits.
26:37
Yeah, it was like, because obviously the way like the
26:40
Legion ball stuff works is like most of the time you play for
26:43
whatever, like post I guess is what it is, is like you're close
26:48
to, but if you wanted to play for Diff 1, you have to like
26:50
have them sign off on it. So like the only guys that are
26:53
playing for the Napoleon team are like Defiance County,
26:57
Williams County. I don't know the other counties,
26:59
but like those kind of schools like Defiance, Napoleon, Tenora,
27:03
Ayersville. What is that paulding out there?
27:07
Paulding's in their own. So they're in a, they're in AI.
27:10
Don't remember what their team was.
27:12
Yeah, they're in their own. They have their own post that
27:15
they play for. But it was, it was fun.
27:18
Yeah, two weeks with the River Band.
27:22
Oh yeah, I forgot you did that. That was.
27:24
Awesome. That was that was a great
27:27
experience. And then we went to like
27:28
Minnesota my junior year when I played there, but then my senior
27:32
went to Alaska for two weeks and that was that was sweet.
27:34
Yeah, it was really fun. Probably worth noting that
27:37
Legion ball is still super popular in Northwest Ohio.
27:40
Yeah, if you're in that region in general.
27:44
The River Band, this is like after you're done playing like
27:47
travel ball in like middle school.
27:50
That's a good, really good program.
27:51
And like if they play some good baseball, Yeah, it was it's
27:55
really fun. It was a really fun 2 summers.
27:57
So so that was. Yeah, I had to go back and cover
28:01
that little fun topic. I'm sure you didn't expect to
28:04
spend a lot of time on those areas, but when you brought it
28:06
up, I figured it was worth noting.
28:09
Yeah, I think it's OK now to cover the rain game, cover the
28:13
monsoon. We we heard Lando's take.
28:16
We know that it was a match up of premier strike throwers
28:21
across the Mac. I think what we failed to
28:24
mention though, with your game starting at 9:00 AM or whatever
28:28
it was supposed to start at, was actually already postponed from
28:33
like 5:00 or 6:00 PM the night before.
28:36
When we played Ball State, it was raining, but like the balls
28:38
were dry so you could pitch in it.
28:40
The BG game was like it was like obviously like the conference
28:45
rivals, really big game, first round of the tournament,
28:48
tensions were high, but like it was going to be like a really
28:51
good game. The Bowling Green pitcher, the
28:53
first inning had the dry balls I think.
28:56
So obviously his he had a really good first inning.
28:58
Second inning, not his fault, but like something so hot.
29:05
Six straight walks or Seven straight walks or.
29:07
Something like that. He goes like four or five guys.
29:11
No, no runs in in the first inning.
29:13
It might have even been three up, three down, I don't
29:14
remember. And then I go out there and I'm
29:16
throwing like my warm up pitches and the ball's dry and I'm like,
29:18
all right, sweet, it's raining. But I pitched in rain before
29:23
with dry baseballs and it's been fine.
29:26
So like what's going to be any different about this?
29:28
That is until I got my first ball back during my first
29:32
batter. Because like my first batter was
29:34
like, I think I got to like 1-2, but like the pitch before the
29:40
1-2 pitch, like the ball went somewhere.
29:43
So I got a new one. And that ball was like soaked
29:47
and slippery. And it was like, imagine if you
29:50
like dropped a baseball into a bucket of water and then you
29:54
just pick it up and pitch with it.
29:57
And my sinker is like kind of offset like 1 seam.
30:01
So like I don't have a bunch of like seam to work with.
30:04
Now. I stopped throwing that after my
30:07
second wild pitch, the backstop because I'm not, I can't throw
30:10
it. So I switched to like a death
30:11
grip 4 seam and I was like trying to put it anywhere near
30:15
the zone. It was probably like 8485, just
30:19
hoping somebody hits it somewhere because like I'm I
30:23
don't know where the ball is going.
30:24
So I go after it was 1-2. I get the ball back and it's
30:29
soaked and I smoke. I think it was Antillion in like
30:35
right here inside to a right It's.
30:38
A nice rib cage shot. Yeah, And I was like, prick,
30:42
that's awesome. So like, can I get another ball,
30:44
please? And then the next one I get also
30:46
soaked. And then that next pitch goes
30:49
over the batter's head by like 3 feet straight to the back stop.
30:53
And I'm like, I don't know, but yeah, it was, it was so bad.
30:58
I think I had like, I think I had fifteen walks on the season
31:02
before that game through like 60 innings.
31:06
And that game was one point. No, it was 1 inning, five walks,
31:13
four hit by pitch, 6 wild pitches.
31:15
And the whole season I think I had three wild pitches.
31:17
So double the amount of wild pitches I had the whole season
31:22
and 1 inning and then they were like, all right, obviously no
31:26
one can throw a strike. We're just going to decide to
31:29
postpone it now. I think my ear away from like
31:31
A-44 to a 5-6 that game. And I was like, come on.
31:35
We couldn't have just like, saw it.
31:37
Though. Yeah, no hits, no hits, no
31:39
hitter. I don't know.
31:40
It was, it was the weirdest game.
31:42
Like obviously when you walk someone in or like hit someone
31:47
and you're like upset. But it got to a point where like
31:50
there's someone on 3rd and I would throw the ball 5 feet over
31:54
the catcher and umpire standing up.
31:57
I was like, I, I don't know what you want me to do.
32:00
I'm like trying to, I should have done the thing where like
32:02
you just get it and then keep throwing him back.
32:03
Because what I, what I think the problem was they needed to have
32:08
like, I don't even know how many like hundreds of baseballs ready
32:12
for that game. If you're playing in rain.
32:14
And this is kind of what Coach Landon said.
32:15
He was like, you need 2 full buckets of baseballs and two
32:19
people drying every single baseball that comes in.
32:22
And you need some kind of system where the umpire was wearing
32:25
like cloth gloves and he would get a baseball, rub it up with
32:30
his wet gloves, and then toss it to me.
32:32
And I'm like, the ball is soaked.
32:34
I was like, what do you want me to do with this?
32:36
Throw it to the backstop again? And that's what I did.
32:39
I was like, all right, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
32:43
So yeah, that's my take on the monsoon game.
32:45
I don't know. Yeah, it was a complete
32:48
debauchery. Like it was so bad.
32:50
Lando and I talked about it for a while and I I've encouraged
32:55
everyone who listens to go look at this on Twitter.
32:59
I mean, yeah, there's like there's news articles about it,
33:02
there's video, there's a TikTok that came up and it's like
33:06
Jackson Bergman, no hit Bowling Green but gave up five runs.
33:12
I didn't see that. They'll have to send you the
33:14
link to that, but it's. Please do because I'm not I'm
33:16
not deep on TikTok. I mean I don't have any TikTok
33:19
but I'll try to watch that somehow it.
33:21
Was like, to start off the video was like the Mac made a complete
33:24
mockery in their conference tournament where Toledo and
33:28
Bowling Green played a total of 2 innings and 16 runs were
33:32
scored on like three hits. I was like, Oh my gosh, that is
33:37
that is true. But that was an experience.
33:39
I'll probably never forget that. No, I don't think he will.
33:42
I mean, that's not many people playing.
33:44
That situation feels like temperature 46°, wind crazy,
33:49
rain crazy. I was watching the video back
33:53
and like I would get the pitch. Well, obviously the pitch comes
33:56
on like the watch and stuff. I would look down and like water
34:00
would just like it's like a gutter was on my hat and it
34:02
would just go straight to the ground.
34:03
I was like, Oh my gosh, this cannot be real.
34:06
Like this conference tournament supposed to be a huge game and
34:09
like, no one can throw a strike. But yeah, I think I ended up
34:13
throwing like 45 pitches, 45 death crip, 4 seams.
34:19
And then then that was on Thursday, think Thursday
34:24
morning. And then I started again on
34:26
Saturday morning. So two days later, I think I
34:28
went like 85 for like 90 pitches.
34:30
And they're against Ball State. But it was.
34:34
It was interesting, so to say the least.
34:36
Well, now that we covered that game, I do want to walk things
34:39
back and talk about more of what you grinded through on the rehab
34:45
side. So you, you gave us the
34:46
timeline. You talked about time off, try
34:50
again, time off, try again, time off, try again.
34:52
I want to spend some time with what you're feeling, not just
34:56
physically in this process, but what you're struggling with
35:00
mentally, or maybe how you were able to keep going when it
35:04
sounds like you're just getting hit with hurdle after hurdle
35:08
after hurdle. Obviously like when it was just
35:10
time on time off, you'll be fine to throw in two weeks, but then
35:13
like 2 weeks ago and you're not fine to throw.
35:15
It was really frustrating because like I like to think
35:19
that I'll do everything in my power to be healthy because the
35:23
best ability is availability. So like I try to be healthy and
35:26
like try to do all my like arm care and stuff like that.
35:28
Obviously the flex pro and just do what I can to make sure I'm
35:31
healthy to play baseball because that's my job right now.
35:35
I guess, even though it's my job, but like that's my that's
35:38
what I'm in college to do. So yeah, I was like, I'd be
35:41
hammering like post throw and arm care before throwing and
35:44
like it just doesn't feel good. And I'm like, that's, that
35:49
sucks. But the Flexpro helped me a lot
35:52
when I was first ramping up. But then it got to a point where
35:55
like if there's something structurally wrong in my elbow
35:59
and that's causing pain, like in the UCL, the Flexpro grip is not
36:03
going to be able to like mask that completely.
36:06
But then once we did the PRP and got back on the Flexpro, that's
36:12
when it started to like go up a lot.
36:14
And that's what I credit a lot of it to.
36:17
Like anyone who asks is like, yeah, I had PRP, but I was also
36:20
flex growing like four days a week.
36:22
And I think that's what helped me be able to pitch so soon.
36:26
Because like without that, I think it would have been like an
36:28
extra four or five weeks before I was like able to throw a
36:31
bullpen. But like my arm felt perfect.
36:36
Like when I started throwing, like there was no pain And I
36:37
was, it's been like that since then too.
36:40
Without the Flexpro. I think it would be like it
36:42
might feel fine. It'll probably be sore some days
36:44
still, But like it feels like it did like my freshman year of
36:49
college, like when there was no, no arm pain whatsoever.
36:51
And that's been really good to, like, look back on because like,
36:55
if my arm still was like, painful and I was trying to get
36:57
back into throwing, it would be, I think, more difficult.
37:00
But like, the fact that I can throw with no arm pain was like,
37:04
all right, now I can work on throwing change UPS in the
37:07
middle of the season. I don't know.
37:08
Who knows? It was kind of, yeah, it was
37:11
kind of something like that. But yeah, it was more so a lot
37:14
of just like wondering like, because obviously you can only
37:18
do so much to a point where it's like, am I going to be able to
37:21
throw this season? I'd be talking my trainer, like
37:24
will I be able to pitch like Week 1?
37:28
And he's like, that's the plan. So we'll see.
37:31
But there's a lot of like, we'll see.
37:33
Like it was hard to have like a set answer on something like
37:37
that because it's like you don't know in September when you're
37:40
taking two weeks off, it's like, we'll see how it feels in two
37:42
weeks or do the PRP and it's like, yeah, we'll see if it
37:45
worked. If not, we might need to do
37:47
something else. But I'm glad everything worked
37:49
out the way it did. So couple.
37:51
Questions here both can probably take long winded answers from
37:56
you, so I'm trying to be very calculated and which one I asked
37:59
first. But maybe, maybe we'll start
38:01
with more the Flex Pro RIP question.
38:04
And I apologize to you if this feels leading at all.
38:08
Please tell me to shut up if you think it sounds like I'm trying
38:12
to make you plug what we do. But did it help having data or
38:18
objectivity to kind of let you know, hey, I'm progressing, hey,
38:22
I'm getting stronger rather than you just saying like, well, I
38:25
think I did the work. Yeah, that's kind of like a lot
38:28
of it is like a guessing game. Obviously when you're doing
38:32
like, I don't know, you're doing like a BFR or something for your
38:35
elbow and you're like, we'll see if it feels good tomorrow.
38:37
I mean, you're just like kind of guessing with everything you're
38:40
doing, but like you don't know if it's working.
38:43
But like the Flex Pro, obviously it's like you start, I think I
38:47
started my program at like it was like rehab AB and C, like
38:50
20% or something like that. So it was starting out really
38:53
light and like it was tough at first, obviously because I
38:56
haven't been throwing for so long.
38:58
But then once I started doing that for two weeks, it was like,
39:01
all right, we're going to the next thing and just keep
39:03
progressing and it keeps feeling better and you keep being able
39:06
to throw more and throw harder and throw all your pitches.
39:08
I guess I'm trying to think how to say this, but like when
39:13
you're pitching, sometimes it's hard to have confidence if you
39:16
don't have success. But then your confidence comes
39:18
off of your preparation because you know you did the work and
39:21
you know you should succeed and stuff like that.
39:23
But for the Flex pro thing, it was like, I know I'm doing this
39:25
work and I know my arm feels good.
39:27
So I can not worry about, is my arm going to be hurting again in
39:31
two weeks? I did the PRP and I did the Flex
39:33
Pro and it feels great. I'm not going to worry about it
39:36
because I know this thing works and it's helped me get here, so
39:39
I know it'll help me keep progressing and stuff like that.
39:41
So yeah, I don't know if that's a good answer like long enough.
39:45
That's beautifully stated. It's so hard because I'm on the
39:49
side of of course I believe flex program works.
39:53
I helped build it and I'm a Co founder of the company.
39:58
So yeah, I'm going to believe that it can be an answer every
40:03
step of the way. But when I hear.
40:06
Those kind of things coming from a guy like you, candidly, who
40:10
went through an injury, potentially career altering
40:14
injury with no answers or nowhere to turn.
40:18
And you think it was a key part of what enabled you to throw a
40:21
ball this season, let alone get signed by a Big 10 school?
40:27
Throw the most innings you've thrown as a collegiate pitcher.
40:30
All these things that probably 8 1/2 nine months ago felt
40:35
unattainable at 2 or certain AM. I going to be able to like,
40:38
maybe I'll be able to throw like by the time conference games
40:41
start, maybe I'll be able to throw like 6 weeks into the
40:44
season. I think it just fast forwarded
40:47
my whole progression into being able to throw again.
40:50
So yeah. Cool.
40:51
Well, I'll take that. Thanks a ton for banging for us
40:56
for a minute there. But now the other question I was
40:58
going to ask, we're going to pivot back to it.
41:01
You did eventually get PRP and what was that like late
41:04
September or something like that, early October?
41:08
I think it was late October, honestly.
41:10
Oh shoot, it was. Late in the fall.
41:13
So I know I was banging for a while for you to get checked
41:18
out, get an MRI, get something. Of course.
41:21
I believe Flex Pro Grip could help, but we also didn't know
41:25
the severity of anything. You're really dealing with wrong
41:28
with my elbow. And it was like, is it like, is
41:32
it a muscular thing? Is it like a one of is it a
41:34
ligament? And it's like, we didn't know.
41:37
And that was, that was tough because I was like trying
41:40
everything I can and it doesn't feel good.
41:42
We're two months into the fall now and we haven't made any
41:44
progression from when I showed up in August.
41:47
And it was like, that was the frustrating part for me, 'cause
41:49
I'm doing everything I can, but we don't have an answer on what
41:52
it is. Yeah, I'm glad we figured it
41:54
out. And then it was like, all right,
41:55
it's not the Flex Pro. Like the Flex Pro was helping as
41:59
much as it could, but to an extent it was like, something is
42:03
not right. And then once we fixed that,
42:06
yeah. And then once we fixed that, it
42:07
was like all the way. It was like a quick, I mean from
42:12
not throwing to having PRP and then two months later pitch
42:15
Oregon I think is a pretty quick turn around.
42:17
Yeah, I would certainly say so. Now if you can be critical of
42:22
your own process, I'm assuming 20 with 2020 hindsight, you
42:26
would have tried to get it taken care of sooner or get PRP during
42:29
the summer. Or do you think it was worth it
42:32
for you to try to grind through it for a?
42:35
Bit I think looking back at it, if I would, there's AB one
42:40
second. I don't want to get stung.
42:41
That would suck. Oh my gosh.
42:43
I'm keeping this in. OK, I got it.
42:46
We're good. It was legit like an inch from
42:49
me. That was terrible.
42:49
Please tell me it was a WASP, not AB.
42:52
It was a wasp, but it's still alive and it flew away.
42:54
So hopefully it doesn't come back for me.
42:55
Yeah. Looking back, it's like it's
42:58
tough though, because like you got to go through like all the
43:00
processes and stuff like with the, especially when you're with
43:04
like the school, the school has like their process of going
43:06
through athletes who have like something wrong with them.
43:10
And it's like, all right, we're going to do the least amount of
43:13
stuff 1st. And I mean, it's the way I feel
43:15
like every single school is like we're going to try to do the
43:17
least amount of stuff to see if you're OK first.
43:20
But then like the MRI doesn't tell us anything.
43:23
Well, it's like at first it was like the ultrasound.
43:25
So it was like the ultrasound doesn't tell us anything.
43:28
Then we'll get an MRI. If that's not there, then we'll
43:30
get the MRI with contrast. But if that's still not there
43:32
and that's not working, then we'll get a second opinion.
43:35
I don't know. So it was a bunch of like 2 week
43:37
spans of if this works, we'll do something else.
43:39
If this works, we'll do something else.
43:41
And it was like, come on, can we please just figure it out?
43:44
I didn't know it wasn't good until like the second week of
43:49
September because I took the summer off.
43:51
If I would have been throwing in the summer and felt like that
43:53
same pain in June, I'm sure we would have been three or four
43:56
months ahead of where we were. So which would have been good.
44:00
But at the same time, you can't go back and change that.
44:02
So just going to do what you can with what you have.
44:05
So maybe, maybe we pivot again a little bit here.
44:08
We've talked about dental school in the process.
44:11
You studied for your tests all last summer, graduated earlier
44:16
from Toledo. Feel free to talk about your
44:19
nerdy side a little bit. When did you figure out you
44:22
wanted to be a dentist? Have you always been passionate
44:25
about school? I've always.
44:28
Liked school, I think because I was good at it.
44:31
Obviously you like things that you're good at.
44:32
I really like the STEM classes. Like I was really good at
44:35
science and math in high school. So I was like, all right, I want
44:39
to do something that involves that.
44:41
Then you look at what is that? You can go to medical school,
44:45
dental school, PA nurse, you can work in a lab, you can do
44:49
engineering, you can do a bunch of stuff.
44:53
And then at that point it was like, I'm going to start a
44:55
narrow down the options and like what I don't like about them.
44:59
And like, I was like, I don't want to work in a lab.
45:02
I don't know why, Like there's no windows and it's weird.
45:05
I don't want to work in a lab. I don't want to be a physician.
45:07
I, I want to have like some work life balance and stuff like
45:10
that. And I mean, the physician, if
45:12
you get your schedule from your hospital, you work for the thing
45:16
that I like about dentistry, if you have a good work life
45:18
balance, but at the same time, you go to school for eight
45:22
years, but at the end of the eight years, you can start
45:24
practicing. And for Med school, you go to
45:26
school for eight years, then you have another five year residency
45:28
before you can like start actually being positioned.
45:30
I don't know if I want to wait 13 years.
45:32
Eight years is long enough part about dentistry that I like.
45:35
I obviously like to work with my hands.
45:36
But if you're actually doing the same thing every day, like
45:38
there's different procedures that you do, I've always liked
45:41
trying to get as good as I can at things.
45:44
And I mean, that's what dentistry is like.
45:46
You have 1012 different procedures that you do and you
45:49
try to get as good as you can at them.
45:51
And I just like challenges. I think if I didn't have like a
45:55
challenging career, I would go crazy because I obviously want
45:57
to keep trying to be good at things.
45:59
And then so my junior year of high school is when I was
46:01
thinking about all this and I was like, I don't know what I
46:03
want to do. And then my mom was like, why
46:06
don't you just go watch Shay, who's like our family's Dennis,
46:10
We're pretty good friends with them for a day.
46:12
So I did that. At first I thought the dentist
46:14
would just slam around and checked your teeth and then the
46:16
appointment. But I didn't know like at the
46:17
back of the office is like where they actually like do their
46:20
procedures. And I was like, oh, that's
46:22
interesting. And then like throughout the day
46:24
I was like, this is a really cool career.
46:26
And I was like, that's good. So that's kind of how I came to
46:31
dentistry. And then you got to do all the
46:33
prereqs and then you got to shadow.
46:36
And I think I've shadowed like 100 hours the last three years,
46:39
which is a lot. But got a shadow, you got to do
46:42
everything you can to get in. And that's kind of like where
46:45
the program I'm doing, IU, is going to help me kind of
46:48
strengthen my application and it'll help me have a better
46:50
understanding of healthcare as a whole.
46:51
It's kind of what? The program?
46:52
What is the program there? It's a one year graduate program
46:56
in public health. Cool.
46:58
Yeah, it'll be, it'll be a really good program.
47:00
Yeah. That's kind of how I got to
47:02
that. So.
47:03
And the good thing is like, you can decide you want to do
47:07
dentistry, but then you start doing your shadowing and you're
47:08
like, I don't know, All of my shattering experiences kind of
47:13
helped me get to the point that I actually do want to do this.
47:17
And it'll be really should be really good careers.
47:20
Yeah. How difficult is it for you to
47:23
be in a dugout? Now I know nobody in the college
47:29
game actually uses tobacco because that would be illegal,
47:32
but how difficult is it for you to be in a dugout and see what
47:38
goes in the mouths? All the spends and the Velos and
47:42
all that stuff, I'm like, well, it's obviously like tough
47:46
because nicotine is addictive and like you can't, it's hard to
47:50
stop doing it and you feel good when you do use it.
47:53
But like I'm like, no, I'm don't want gum recession.
47:56
I don't want to get gum disease. So like you can do that.
47:58
Feel free. I'm not going to so whatever you
48:03
want to do, that's that's up to you.
48:04
But like I'm I'm good. But like one of them putting
48:07
them in, I was like, do you like move it?
48:09
Because if you keep putting like a Zen pouch in the same spot,
48:13
it's going to start that cause recession in that one spot.
48:15
And I was like, at least just like move it around like when
48:18
you put it in. So it's not like always in one
48:20
spot in your mouth can kind of recover a little bit.
48:23
And I'm like, please, I don't want you to have to lose your
48:26
teeth. But yeah, I don't know.
48:29
Because like they're 2018 or they're 21 year old guys, like
48:35
they, it's their life. They can choose what they want
48:37
to do. But like I'm choosing not to
48:39
obviously because I don't want to be a dentist without teeth
48:43
so. Right.
48:44
Yeah. You can't just be the do as I
48:46
say, Dennis. You also have to be the do as I
48:48
do dentist. Yeah, I'm like feel free, but
48:51
like I'm, I'm good. During this conversation when
48:53
you were talking about the timeline, I went back through
48:56
our text messages just to see how everything played out and
49:00
you nailed it. You said you did reach out in
49:02
July. I saw it was July 18th of last
49:04
year is when you officially sent me the first text.
49:07
Then I saw I have a text from you on July 19th saying hey,
49:12
would it be a good idea for me to do flex pro on my left arm as
49:16
well? Because I plan on studying to be
49:19
a dentist and I really want to make sure that I have strong,
49:22
dexterous hands for my entire career.
49:25
So good for you, man. Like really not just focusing on
49:30
your career as a baseball player in the moment, but trying to get
49:33
long term health. I mean, if I have this thing, I
49:36
might as well use it. So yeah.
49:39
So I don't know. Yeah.
49:40
Because obviously non dominant hand is like not as strong or
49:46
like you can't don't have the same dexterity as you're not
49:49
going to add. So I'm like, if I can do this
49:51
and it'll help me a little bit, why not?
49:53
Love that. I know we, we spend a lot of
49:55
time here on the off the field stuff.
49:58
I do want to ask a couple more questions about the rehab
50:01
process, if that's OK. Obviously it sounds like you had
50:05
a lot of small hiccups before actually getting the PRP, but
50:10
once you've got the PRP, was there any major roadblocks or
50:15
was it just pedal to the metal full speed ahead?
50:19
Roadblock that I had was my arm path was so bad after I started
50:22
throwing it and it was like, this is going to be rough, but
50:26
there's no pain at all. My whole time getting back into
50:29
throwing. Obviously there's soreness and
50:31
stuff, but that's going to come with building volume to pitch
50:34
over not throwing a baseball for two months over a 1 1/2 month,
50:39
two months. Yeah, there was no major
50:42
hiccups. Everything went smoothly.
50:43
The Doctor Who did my PRPI think he's done like 15 and he like
50:49
has a plan and stuff that he has out.
50:51
And like my athletic trainer had like a plan of like when we'd
50:54
get back to throwing and stuff like that.
50:56
And we pretty much followed it to a tee.
50:58
A lot of the times we have plans, you get pushed back like
51:00
a week or two because you don't feel good, but it followed it
51:02
perfectly. February came around and I was
51:04
throwing both plans and it was like, all right, this is this is
51:06
going to work. So yeah, it was good.
51:08
No hiccups. You were kind of on your own it
51:11
seemed like, if I recall, maybe there were a couple other guys
51:14
rehabbing for things. But how did it feel after being
51:19
a part of the team with every single thing you did your entire
51:23
freshman year, your entire sophomore year, never being hurt
51:27
and then having to step away in your junior year?
51:30
It's pretty much you and the athletic trainer at every
51:33
practice. Yeah, so it was.
51:35
It was really weird because I would try to do things without
51:39
throwing Corvilo and some like Med ball stuff but like just
51:43
ripping water. Bags.
51:44
Just like water bags, like stuff that I could do that would help
51:48
me just like stay athletic and like able to throw on the mound.
51:52
But like, at the end of the day, like during practice, I'll just
51:56
be sitting dugout talking with my trainer and like maybe doing
51:59
PF ES and Bundy and stuff like that.
52:02
And I'm like, I'd love to be out there, but I can't throw a
52:05
baseball more than 30 feet right now.
52:07
So like, I'm just going to sit in here with my trainer and
52:09
still it feels better. Yeah, it was tough because
52:12
obviously I would have wanted to be able to practice and like
52:16
blend scrimmages and stuff. It just didn't happen.
52:19
So it was tough. After I was able to throw it
52:23
pretty much went back to normal which was good.
52:26
You did mention I don't think I even knew about this, a little
52:30
forearm hiccup back your senior year of high school.
52:34
Was that ever diagnosed as anything or you just had pain
52:37
for a little bit? No, it was, I don't know what it
52:39
was, but like it was just like my forearms like locked up for
52:42
like 2 weeks and I couldn't even like squeeze baseball.
52:47
And it was like, I don't know what that is.
52:50
And then I went to Kraus and he had like the, I don't know if
52:52
he's ever talked to you about it, but like he has that like
52:55
laser thing that he uses a lot. And I would go there like once a
52:59
week for like 2 weeks and just laser.
53:01
And then he would like work on like the structure of like my
53:05
wrist. I don't really know.
53:07
I don't claim to know anything about chiropractic.
53:11
But there's like the seven bones in your wrist and obviously they
53:15
have to move around and I guess they're really tight.
53:17
And he did some stuff and after two weeks of that, it was fine.
53:23
So it was really weird because it's really sore.
53:25
But then right after he did that, it was fine forever.
53:29
Like it never came back. And I was like, that's odd, but
53:33
all right, it worked. I don't.
53:36
Know and now another complete shift.
53:39
Hopefully you're cool with it. What was it like growing up with
53:43
a big league dad? From a baseball perspective, you
53:48
don't need to talk about any childhood trauma stuff if there
53:52
is any, and turn this into a therapeutic session.
53:55
I'm more mean from a baseball perspective.
53:57
I I do find it kind of funny that you didn't play like super
54:02
competitive baseball until you were a little bit older in life
54:05
compared to most kids and you were going to others to learn
54:09
about pitching. I mean, obviously the 90s to now
54:12
is not the same pitching style. Back then it was like, all
54:17
right, you're going to try to get to your balance point and
54:19
then push off as hard as you can and then you'll throw hard.
54:22
But like obviously now. Like equal opposite arms.
54:26
Yeah, it's like dump the bucket to sand out and then you're
54:28
going to push off with your back leg as hard as you can and
54:32
finish your catcher in a fielding position.
54:35
But like, it's like, no, that's not really what people do
54:38
anymore. Yeah, from the pitching side.
54:40
I mean, I'll send you a video of my mechanics in high school and
54:43
it kind of is exactly what that was here straight out and then
54:48
throw. And it was like, that looks
54:51
really bad. Yeah.
54:52
He helped me a lot with like the mental side of the baseball
54:55
stuff. And that was really good.
54:57
And he helped me with what, like the pitching stuff.
55:00
And he's got a lot better because he still gets pitching
55:02
lessons for like younger kids. And now he is more up to date on
55:06
like what actually works because there's science behind it.
55:10
And it's not just like, get your balance point and push off the
55:14
back leg, but which I mean, for younger kids, it's fine because
55:17
you're just trying to make like a solid foundation mechanics.
55:20
And like, once you get older, there's like actually things
55:22
that matter with your mechanics that aren't really talked about
55:27
in the 90s, I would say. But yeah, he was done playing
55:31
before I was born. So I didn't like grow up in the
55:35
big league dugouts and stuff like that, which would be cool.
55:37
My oldest sister did kind of. She was four years older than
55:43
me. So she went to Japan with him
55:45
for two years and lived there. It was good to have that
55:48
resource, especially with like the he wasn't like AI go like go
55:53
for four with three KS and like getting yelled at in the car
55:56
after the game, which was good. He let me come to him a lot and
56:00
he didn't like try to push anything on me, which was good
56:02
because then I'd like actually like baseball.
56:04
If it was like we're going to the cage for four hours today,
56:06
I'd be like, I don't want to, but yeah, it was good.
56:10
So from Japan to Hicksville, OH seems like a really solid.
56:15
Yeah, Japan to West Palm Beach, FL.
56:19
Then they moved to Hicksville once I was born, kind of.
56:22
Good. Yeah, you you really got the the
56:24
nice end of things. Yeah, definitely.
56:27
And this is this one I always think is funny.
56:31
Do you throw harder than your dad did?
56:35
No, actually. Really.
56:37
You haven't eclipsed him yet. I have not eclipsed him.
56:40
I think he said. I throw harder than he did in
56:42
college. But.
56:45
Where'd your dad go to college? You went to Southern Illinois,
56:48
OK, but that was like back when mid major baseball was like good
56:54
and like you would like go to home like multiple mid major
56:57
teams and be in Omaha every year.
56:59
Yeah, I think they were like I think they went to a super
57:03
regional when he played with them.
57:05
I don't remember, but obviously wasn't alive, but I threw 100
57:09
and he didn't college but his all time like Max Vilo I think
57:14
it's 97, but he said his best year in the big leagues he was
57:19
like 8993. So I don't know.
57:24
So right. Where you're at currently.
57:26
Yeah, so but like his top was 97, so I have not reached that
57:31
yet. Hopefully I do next year so.
57:33
Yeah, I am wearing the IU Throwing Gas Company T-shirt, so
57:39
hopefully that means a thing or two for you when you get to
57:42
Bloomington. We're going to get the 4th plate
57:44
so we should be able to sync some stuff up and hopefully
57:48
throw some fuel. That would be the goal, yes.
57:52
Well. Throwing slow is not the goal,
57:55
so throwing hard is better than throwing slow.
57:59
Throw hard. Boost that K rate and then you
58:03
can have the really fun discussion next June where hey,
58:08
Jackson has started to boost his Velo a little bit.
58:12
He's now sitting 9192. He's topping some fives.
58:17
He's become a draft prospect at 6 foot 6.
58:21
The sinker slider combo, it's really good.
58:23
We like it. And you say, well that's too bad
58:26
because I'm going to need at least 500K because I got dental
58:30
school waiting for me. When I'm done playing baseball,
58:34
I need you to pay for all of my schooling, whatever that may be.
58:38
And then maybe we'll think about it.
58:40
We'll think about it. I don't know.
58:42
It would be hard to me. It would be hard for me to not
58:45
if I got accepted in dental school because like obviously
58:47
that's a really hard thing to do.
58:48
And like you would, I would have to, Oh my gosh, I'd have to
58:51
retake the test. I'd probably have to retake a
58:53
bunch of classes because they expire after a while.
58:56
It'd be a whole, It'd be a whole grind because like my Gen. chem
59:00
that I took in 2019 I think expires after like 8 years or
59:04
something like that. So I'd have to retake that.
59:05
So that would suck. My gosh.
59:07
It'd be a grind so. These are the unspoken of
59:11
consequences of being a nerd that plays baseball.
59:14
Yeah, exactly. And nobody, not much other
59:16
people will talk about it so. But the cool thing about
59:19
Indiana, they had a guy graduate from their undergrad in 20, I
59:26
think it was 2020 coverage year, but he just graduated from IU's
59:30
dental school. That'll be nice to have that
59:33
contact. And then his dad's also a
59:35
dentist too, and he works with the dental school with Indiana,
59:38
so that'll be nice. So you.
59:39
Can rub elbows with some good people.
59:41
Yeah, yeah, for sure. But yeah, it should be, should
59:45
be good. But Bloomington is like, I think
59:47
it's like a really nice college town.
59:48
I want to my visit there and it's like 45,000 people live
59:52
there, but then like 50,000 people go to school there
59:55
compared to like Toledo's 200,000 people live there and
1:00:01
14,000 people go to school there.
1:00:03
So yeah, it'll be. It'll be different, but it
1:00:06
should be fun. It'll be a blast.
1:00:08
I'm really excited for you. You have passed my line of
1:00:11
questioning. I I'm good.
1:00:13
I surrender everything else because at worst case scenario I
1:00:17
just pick up the phone and berate you with something else.
1:00:20
I'm sure it might happen, who knows?
1:00:22
Well, it's going to happen. I'm sure we're going to talk
1:00:24
here in the next couple days. You got to tell me about the
1:00:26
start that you have tonight. Unfortunately, the timeline of
1:00:30
the podcast doesn't work out super well with the recording,
1:00:33
but we'll we'll hear about it. Yeah, awesome.
1:00:36
Well, you don't have any other questions, so I'm going to go
1:00:39
get some lunch, so. Perfect.
1:00:41
So that's not, I'll end the podcast a little bit better than
1:00:44
that, but. Do you do you have?
1:00:47
Anything else that you feel you need to get off your chest or
1:00:49
are you Are you good at this point?
1:00:51
I think we, I think we've covered everything.
1:00:53
So yeah, not much else I could think of about my baseball
1:01:00
story. I guess so.
1:01:01
Well, the rest is still in written.
1:01:03
Yeah, true. We've got another year at
1:01:04
Indiana and then who knows? For sure.
1:01:07
Well, I appreciate the time today.
1:01:09
As always, I appreciate our conversations.
1:01:12
Been honored to get to know you over the past year at this point
1:01:15
or past 11 months trending up on a year and looking forward to
1:01:18
bright things from you. But to everyone out there who
1:01:22
tuned in, thanks for laying back with us.