The Whole Journey, Year by Year

The short version is on the timeline. This is the longer one, one season at a time. The numbers come from the Baseball-Reference register and my own records. Where I don't have a source, I've left it out.

2005 — The replacement

Total hip replacement on 25 July, age 19, two months after my mother died. On 22 August I started at the University of Arizona. I walked in on a cane and left without it.

2006 — Arizona says no

Six months after surgery I was throwing off a mound without pain. The university's doctor still wouldn't clear me, so no team. Eleven months out, I threw six innings and over a hundred pitches for the Casa Grande Cotton Kings anyway.

2007 — Windy City ThunderBolts (Frontier League)

10–2, 3.28 ERA. Champion and series MVP. The hip didn't make the news.

2008 — Windy City ThunderBolts

7–6, 3.91, 110 strikeouts in 89.2 innings, and the first no-hitter in franchise history. Second title.

2009 — Victoria Seals, Calgary Vipers, Newark Bears

9–2 in Victoria, a trip to Boston that ended in no, then a late-season trade to Calgary and a third title. Then Newark for the Atlantic League playoffs. That summer the Padres signed me and un-signed me after an X-ray.

2010 — Mexico City, Oaxaca, Victoria

Spring training with the Diablos Rojos, then a trade to Oaxaca. I was released from Oaxaca on 12 June and went back to Victoria. That March my surgeon had suggested a possible revision of the cup of the hip. I turned it down because being cut open again would have ended any chance at affiliated ball. More on Mexico here.

2011 — Winnipeg Goldeyes (American Association)

In February I wrote my surgeon about a cyst above the cup. In March I didn't get on the plane to Japan. I opened the season as a Goldeye, finished 8–4 with a 4.15 ERA over 104 innings, and the team went 60–40 and made the playoffs. We lost a five-game semifinal to St. Paul.

2012 — Bridgeport Bluefish, then Brno

Eight appearances in the Atlantic League, 2–3 with a 6.40 ERA, then I left mid-season for the Czech Extraliga. The Ripken reality show called and never aired.

2013 — Phoenix Prospectors (Freedom Pro Baseball League)

A broken hand, a busy summer, and the fourth championship. Not on Baseball-Reference.

2014 and 2015

Nothing on the register. I was building MADE Baseball and, in 2014, an organisation called EVEryday Champ.

2016 — Joplin Blasters

The last professional season, and a short one: 7.1 innings. Career line on the register: 44–25, 526 strikeouts in 548.1 innings.

2024 — Party Animals

Pitching coach for the Savannah Bananas' Party Animals. It didn't last.

2026 — Still pitching

I'm 41. Twenty-one years on the same hip. Last Wednesday I threw nine innings.

If you're somewhere in your own version of this list, that's the conversation I have with people one at a time.