Four Championships in Seven Years of Pro Ball

I won four championships in seven professional seasons.

Three of them came in my first three years. I had a total hip replacement on 25 July 2005, two weeks before my twentieth birthday. My first professional season started in 2007.

That's the part I still find strange. Not the rings — the timing.

2007 — Windy City ThunderBolts

My rookie year. We went 68–28 in the regular season under Andy Haines, who's now a hitting coach in the big leagues, and beat the Washington Wild Things three games to two for the Frontier League championship on 17 September.

I went 10–2 with a 3.28 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 57.2 innings, and was named MVP of the championship series.

Two years earlier I'd been told my playing days were finished.

2008 — Windy City ThunderBolts, again

We swept the Kalamazoo Kings three games to none.

Back-to-back titles made us only the second team in Frontier League history to repeat, after the Richmond Roosters in 2001 and 2002. That year I struck out 110 in 89.2 innings and threw the first no-hitter in franchise history on 5 August.

2009 — Calgary Vipers

I signed with Calgary on 19 August, late in the season, straight into a playoff run. We beat the Tucson Toros three games to one for the Golden Baseball League title.

Three championships. Three seasons. Every one of them on a replaced hip.

2013 — Phoenix Prospectors

The fourth came later, in the Freedom Pro Baseball League — an independent league in Arizona that only existed for two seasons. We beat Peoria two games to none in the final.

The league folded. Most of the record went with it, which is part of why I'm writing this down.

What the numbers say

Across seven professional seasons I went 44–25 with a .638 winning percentage, 526 strikeouts in 548.1 innings, 150 games, ten complete games and two shutouts.

You can check the record yourself — it's on Baseball-Reference. The 2013 season isn't there; that league was never tracked.

Why I'm telling you this

Not to impress you. Because if you're facing a joint replacement right now, someone has probably already told you what you won't do again.

They told me too. Then I won three championships in three years.

I'm not saying you'll do what I did. I'm saying the version of you on the other side of this is more capable than you currently believe — and that the ceiling somebody hands you is not the same thing as the truth.

Use it as a reason. Not as an excuse.