1992 — today
The whole thing, end to end
Thirty-four years, four championships, four organisations that signed me and couldn't keep me, and one hip. Every date here is verifiable and most of it is written up at length elsewhere on this site.
- Earned it
- Taken away
- The hip
1992
The hip
Legg-Calvé-Perthes, age seven
A pin in the hip for over a year, and six weeks of a half body cast between first and second grade. No running or jumping for a year. I couldn't play at six, seven or eight.
1994
Earned it
I finally get to play
Nine years old, first season of baseball. I fell for it immediately and never got over it.
2003
Earned it
Shadow Mountain, 4.27 GPA
A provost's full-ride tuition waiver to ASU on academics. I turned it down for junior college at South Mountain, because ASU never recruited me to play.
2004
Taken away
Washington State won't clear me
A full ride, twenty-two hours in the car with my mom, and a team physical on 17 August that ended it — stop playing competitive baseball, and don't replace the hip before thirty. On the way out of town I stopped at the hospital to see my dad, knowing it was the last time. He died on 25 September.
2005
The hip
Total hip replacement at nineteen
25 July, two weeks before my twentieth birthday. My mom had died on 22 May — about a week and a half after she and I sat in a meeting together to learn what my life would look like afterwards. She never saw the operation she'd prepared me for. My insurance was through her, and my aunt Pamela got me re-covered so it could still happen.
2005
Earned it
Four weeks later, I ditch the cane
22 August, first day of classes at Arizona. I walked in on a cane and left without one, because I was nineteen and I wasn't doing that.
2006
Taken away
Arizona won't clear me either
Six months post-op I was throwing off a mound pain free. I rode my bike to Coach Wosikowski's office twelve Mondays in a row. Their doctor still said no — I offered to sign away every ounce of the school's liability and it didn't matter. Eleven months post-op I threw six innings and over a hundred pitches for the Casa Grande Cotton Kings anyway.
2007
Earned it
Frontier League champion, series MVP
An open tryout in Tucson on 3 March, topping out at 87. Then 8–1 by the All-Star break as a rookie with the Windy City ThunderBolts, and four appearances in the championship series without giving up a run.
2008
Earned it
A no-hitter, and a second ring
The first no-hitter in ThunderBolts history and the first complete game of my career. We repeated as champions — only the second team in Frontier League history to do it — and I was named the number six prospect in independent baseball.
2009
Taken away
The Padres sign me, then void it
A bullpen at the Peoria Sports Complex in front of Bill Bryk and Grady Fuson, who told me I was as good as any lefty in their system. I signed. They sent me across the street for X-rays. Grady called about five hours later to say it wasn't going to work out.
2009
Earned it
Third championship, Calgary
Calgary Vipers. Three rings in three professional seasons.
2010
Taken away
Mexico City, then Oaxaca, then released
Spring training with the Diablos Rojos, the rotation, then the bullpen, then a trade to Oaxaca so I could start again, then released in August. I learned Spanish and worked out what my Latin American teammates had been carrying their whole careers.
2011
Taken away
Arizona, the MLBPA, and a wall
Bill Bryk came back for me from the Diamondbacks. I threw the bullpen and threw it well. Jerry Dipoto called to say no. Behind it, WilmerHale and the players' association spent months trying to solve the workers' compensation exposure on a replaced hip, and couldn't. Four organisations signed or tried to sign me. None were allowed to keep me.
2011
Taken away
Japan, and then the tsunami
Four months of arrangements, a $2,000 entertainer visa and a trip to the consulate in California to sign with Niigata Albirex — the route to Nippon Professional Baseball. One phone call left, to name my flight. That night the Tōhoku earthquake hit. I stayed, signed with the Winnipeg Goldeyes instead, and started opening day.
2011
Earned it
A commission-only job selling SEO
October, eight months after that bullpen. National PC Solutions, later Helix House. No base salary. It is the single least glamorous entry on this page and it is where everything I do now started.
2012
Earned it
The Atlantic League, and then Europe
Pitching for Willie Randolph in Bridgeport — the highest level outside affiliated ball — while living in the clubhouse without a car. Then I left mid-season for the Czech Extraliga, because I wanted to make one decision for me. I also started substitute teaching that autumn, and used the quiet days to teach myself the internet.
2013
Earned it
Fourth championship
Phoenix Prospectors, Freedom Pro Baseball League. Four rings in seven seasons. Around the same time, Helix House hired me as project manager.
2016
Earned it
The last professional season
Joplin Blasters. Seven seasons, 44–25, 526 strikeouts in 548 innings — all of it on a replaced hip.
2024
Taken away
Pitching coach, Party Animals
Sold-out stadiums, a bus by nine, the field until midnight. I'd moved my family across the country for it, and I spent the season forty feet from where I actually wanted to be standing. They didn't ask me back.
2026
Earned it
Still pitching at forty-one
A hundred pitches a game in Florida heat, twenty-one years after the operation. Building CageList. Writing all of this down for the first time.
