Today Was Pro Day... For The Other Guys

Well, I was wrong. I was unaware of the irony at the time of the last post, but little did I know that the lower back pangs that I struggled with on Friday wouldn't get better over our off day. So here I am on Sunday, having attended but not participated in our Pro Day, waiting my 10:00 AM appointment with the athletic trainer on Monday. This is a pain I'm not used to, and just in case it falls under injury pain instead of sore pain, I figured that blowing out my back to participate in pro day wouldn't be worth sacrificing the rest of the fall season. Unthinkably frustrating, though, especially since I was penciled in as the second team center fielder.

I did get to sit and evaluate, though, which was nice. I got to watch every single position player hit, play the field, and run a 60-yard dash, and I got to watch all the pitchers pitch. This was something I hadn't been able to do yet, so I was glad to have the opportunity, even though I bad-lucked into it.

These guys throw HARD. Good lord. One of the freshmen was clocked at 94. The slowest guy was in the low to mid 80s. I have some pretty serious doubts about my ability to hit this pitching. Everything else aside, I need to show that I can be competitive at the plate. And oh man, will that be difficult. Whenever I step into the box, my consciousness will have to become my eyes, my hands, and nothing more. The confidence took a hit today. Both being injured and observing the level of pitching didn't help.

At the same time, though, of 17 pitchers going through three hitters each, there were only 6 hits. Nobody stood out as a great hitter, and it's obvious that all the hitters are getting back used to seeing pitching again. So even though I'm behind where I think I need to be in my own mind, it's possible I'm not actually behind the other hitters at all.

We'll see. I need to get my back healthy first so I can take a full hack and throw again. Or run even. I couldn't do anything today. I sure am glad I trained for months to lower my 60-yard dash time and then couldn't run it at pro day. Balls.