Felled by Hubris

I wasn’t healthy when I took the mound for my second start of the season last week and it definitely showed. I didn’t make it out of the second inning, giving up three earned runs, two hits and walking five. 

It was an admittedly terrible performance. My mechanics felt awful and my body felt extraordinarily weak. I was deriving zero power from my legs and all of my pitches were finishing high in the zone. I didn’t have the strength to follow through with my delivery and attack the bottom half of the strike zone (which is where I have to live with my pitches to be successful).

In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have taken the mound. It was my ego that implored me to take the ball. I short-sightedly thought I could get Intercounty Baseball League hitters out at less than full strength.

It was a foolish decision. Not only was I still suffering adverse health effects, but those health problems forced me, as I mentioned last week, to abandon my between outing throwing and strength regimen. Over a two week span—between my first and second appearances—I was only able to workout in the gym once and throw once.

Such a lacklustre conditioning program is not going to cut it in the IBL; I found that out the hard way.

Luckily, the offensive juggernaut that is the London Majors saved me from a loss and we ended up winning the game 18-7. My poor start was inconsequential to the final score.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy pitching with this offence?

So, I learned the importance of pitching at full capacity and I will no longer put myself in a position to throw when all signs point towards resting and getting healthy. It’s never too late to learn something new.

Over the past week, I’ve concentrated on getting healthy and getting my arm and body back in shape. I’ve been training in the gym, struggling to regain the strength that I lost during my layoff. I’ve also fine-tuned the mechanical deficiencies that cropped up in my last outing and I’m convinced that I’m back where I need to be to succeed. I’m running at 100% again and I’m ready to throw this weekend if I’m called upon.

The London Majors have continued our hot start and we are now 7-1 on the season with three home games coming up this weekend. If we can somehow manage to win all three games, we should have a foothold on first place in the league through the first third of the season.

Of course, there is still a lot of ball to be played over the summer.

And that might be an understatement. We had a doubleheader rained out on Saturday, which means we now have four games to make up in an already packed June and July schedule. We are playing well now, but we’re really going to have to focus over the coming weeks to build on this early season success.

Here is my latest “Life with the Majors” column for Metro News London.