Finally, after my leg healed, I had about three months to get into shape. Fortunately, it was the first time I was on a team with a structured training program. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we had either swimming or running at 630 in the morning, followed by weights. I was getting where I needed to be physically pretty quickly, however my studies were falling off the map, never going to class because I was either too depressed or too tired from early morning training. Before this semester of college, I never had below a 3.5 GPA, but this semester I had earned a poor 1.6. Fortunately for me, grades don’t affect your eligibility until your sophomore year.
I ended up gaining almost 20 lbs in three months, as I hit my first natural weight gain going from 195 to 215. I would later hit my final weight gain when I was about 23. As a boy becomes a man, they have their first big growth spurt around 12-14. Then again when they are 16-18. By this time you are pretty much as tall as you will be, but you have two major weight gains again when you hit 19-20, and again at 22-25. A man will fully reach his potential at this age so if you don’t got it by then, you might want to find another career! So with this weight gain with the use of some questionable supplements, I was throwing at the speed that I needed to be to have a chance to make an impact as a freshman. By questionable, I mean that JC ball does not drug test and at the time, these supplements were legal to purchase. Some might still be legal and not banned by the NCAA, but I’m sure my youthful stupidity misled me down a dubious path. I will have a whole blog dedicated to the topic of supplements and my experience with them, which ones to take and stay away from, at a later time. In any event, no one should experiment with any supplements until they hit this initial weight gain of around 19 or 20 years of age. I later learned that most supplements are almost meaningless if not combined with the proper workout routine, as you can easily injure yourself by overbuilding certain muscles and neglecting others. It may be devious to get “big and strong” having some initial results, but I assure you that the injuries will come later as your body will eventually break down with such an asymmetrical motion of a swing and pitch.
So the results came, becoming one of the two horses on our team which rode us all the way to a conference championship. As a freshman, I went a dominating 7-1 with 73 K’s in 73 innings, 3 complete game including 1 shutout, and halfway through the season I started every other game, going every 5 days, sometimes 4. I made First Team All Western State Conference and got drafted in the 29th round by the Texas Rangers. However numbers may be very deceiving. My ERA was well above 4 and I had just about the worst mental game conceivable. I had 3 starts that year in which I didn’t get out of the first inning. But if I got past the first inning, you could count on at least a solid 7. I had five games in which I pitched into the 9th. I was all or nothing. But at the Junior College level, my 87-91 mph fastball and slider combo was devastating to hitters. My success freshman year was based almost purely on skill and luck. But my luck would eventually run out…
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