STARKVILLE — Caleb Griffin doesn’t mind the pressure of having to prove himself.
A little more than a year ago, Griffin didn’t attract a lot of attention from college coaches as he prepared for his senior baseball season at Starkville Academy. The 5-foot-11 right-hander then went out and had a sparkling final year to earn a scholarship to play at Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville.
Griffin knew he couldn’t relax in the offseason, but he also didn’t want to do too much, so he went into the summer thinking he was going to throw only 10 innings.
Griffin never reached that goal.
After long tossing, Griffin said he felt good when he took the mound for a workout for the Mississippi Drillers at Lamar School in Meridian. He said he had thrown from more than 200 feet during his warmup, so he didn’t expect what followed. Griffin said he threw a few pitches and didn’t feel exactly right before he threw a curveball that he called “the defining moment.”
“After I threw that pitch my arm never felt like that or hurt so bad,” Griffin said. “I could feel the throbbing in my arm.”
Like many pitchers, Griffin didn’t want to believe he had just hurt his arm, so he threw another pitch that sailed five feet over the head of the catcher. Griffin didn’t throw another pitch.
He said he didn’t tell anybody about the pain in his arm. About a week or so later, an MRI revealed Griffin had suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL).
“It was one of those things I thought would never happen to me,” Griffin said. “I never had arm trouble. My freshman year I had a little tendinitis in my shoulder my freshman year, but I worked through it. My sophomore and junior years they used to say I had a rubber arm. I just didn’t have arm troubles.”
More than a year after having Tommy John surgery, Griffin is on his way back. If you attended any of the Starkville Academy baseball team’s summer league games, you might have seen Griffin throwing with Colt Chrestman, his former teammate at Starkville Academy and his current teammate at Northeast Mississippi C.C., up on the football team’s practice field.
The regimen has been tedious at times, with plenty of starts and stops after as few as 15 pitches, but Griffin said he is feeling good about his prospects for a return to the mound.
“You do have to have a lot of patience because there have been times I have been extremely frustrated,” Griffin said. “I would say the hardest thing is not necessarily the program but sitting out a season. I haven’t sat out a season in I can’t tell you how long.”
A well-known procedure
Tommy John surgery replaces the UCL in the medial elbow with a tendon from elsewhere in the patient’s body or from the donated tissue of a cadaver. It is named for the longtime Major League Baseball pitcher who first had the surgery in 1974. The surgery allowed him to pitch in the majors until 1989, when he retired at the age of 46.
Since then, the surgery has become a household term as more professional, college, and youth pitchers have the procedure. Research has shown one pitch doesn’t rupture ligaments or cause elbow injuries. Instead, doctors agree the UCL is torn microscopically over time in a flawed pitching delivery.
That didn’t make things any easier for Griffin, who was looking forward to his freshman season in college.
“To hear the doctor tell me I was going to have Tommy John surgery it was heartbreak in the moment,” Griffin said. “I really didn’t know what to think.”
Griffin said so many thoughts raced through his head. He realized the typical recovery period from the surgery was 12-18 months, so he tried not to be overwhelmed by the prospect of missing a season and re-focused on his comeback.
Griffin said he called Northeast Mississippi C.C. pitching coach Jon Andy Scott to let him know what happened. He said the option of redshirting a season changed his mind-set and helped him realize he would have the time to rehabilitate his elbow and to get another chance.
“It was nice to have that redshirt year because I wasn’t trying to rush back into it,” Griffin said. “Fall ball doesn’t start until October, so I still have a few months, and I will be ready for that for sure.”
The road back
Griffin had surgery June 29, 2016, and started a throwing program around Thanksgiving.
The steps to his return started from 45 feet. He works every other day on a throwing program with a partner — usually Chrestman — that has them throw from 45 to 60 to 75 to 90 to 120 to 150 to 180 feet. Griffin said he has backed off or moved back to the previous step each time he has felt a little tenderness or discomfort.
In January, Griffin said he moved to the mound phase of the program. That portion features 13-15 steps. The last one is designed to have him throw a maximum effort. Griffin said he “cruised through the entire mound phase” up until the last step. He said he now is trying to get over a little hump and that he pretty much is on the home stretch.
“It has been a long road and a tough road,” Griffin said. “It is not over yet, but patience has been key. I would recommend that to anyone who has this surgery. They have to learn to trust the process. You have to do it that way or it won’t end.”
Griffin said he has learned a lot watching baseball in the past year. He also encourages other pitchers to learn from him and to do their exercises, to stretch, and to give their arm plenty of rest.
“From probably my sophomore to my senior year, the most rest I gave my arm was a month and a half,” Griffin said. “I threw almost every day. Don’t throw too much in the summer and in the offseason.”
Griffin also used the time away from baseball to get stronger. He said he was cleared to lift weights midway through the fall and that the strength conditioning helped him go from 159 to 180 pounds. Since then, Griffin said he has lost 10 pounds in part from working outside in his current job for a lawn care company. Still, his arm feels strong and ready to take the next step.
“My time is coming to be able to throw again,” Griffin said. “I know that is coming in the future. That is what keeps me moving.”
Griffin said he hasn’t had someone put a radar gun on him since the surgery. He said he consistently threw 81-84 mph in high school and that he feels he is throwing even harder now. As enticing as it sounds to know how hard he is throwing, Griffin said he will remain patient and trust the process.
Staying focused
Griffin had that same focus off the field.
A season without baseball didn’t diminish his ability to excel in the classroom, as evidenced last week when Griffin earned Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) Distinguished Academy All-State honors for a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. Chrestman also earned Academic All-State honors with a 3.57 GPA.
Chrestman has known Griffin ever since kindergarten. He said he knew throwing with Griffin would help him strengthen his arm, so he was a wiling participant. He admitted, though, that the steps he and Griffin had to go through were at times “boring,” but he realized they were crucial for his teammate to take his time and to do them right.
“He started off very positive about it,” Chrestman said. “He knew he had to have surgery. He has stayed positive through all of it. At times, it was kind of hard to find time to throw and to do all of the other things at practice, but we would stay after practice to throw. We always found a way.”
Chrestman said Griffin “loves and respects” the game of baseball and is willing to do whatever he can to get better. He said he has seen the throwing program improve Griffin’s arm strength to the point he said his teammate’s arm might be stronger than his. Chrestman believes Griffin will come back from the injury and make an impact.
“He has always been a strike thrower,” Chrestman said. “He found his location after the surgery, and if he comes in and throws strikes, I have no doubt he will be a successful pitcher, especially with the increased velocity he has gained.”
After so many small steps, Griffin said he will continue to work hard so he can take the mound in the fall or early in 2018 when Northeast Mississippi C.C. gears up for the start of its season.
“I have the drive and capability to get through this,” Griffin said. “If it wasn’t for the drive, I wouldn’t be playing college baseball. I really, really had to work hard for what I got. I definitely wasn’t given my ability on a silver platter. I wasn’t born with it, either. I wasn’t going to let something like this set me back and end my baseball career.
“I know my potential. I feel like I can accomplish anything. I am sure going to try. I am going to go out there and give my best to hopefully continue to play after Northeast. I am going to give everything I have to do that.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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