Westmoreland to face live pitching

[AtWork]

After months of seeing steady progress with his swing, starting with tee work and advancing to soft toss, hitting off a machine and, at long last, batting practice in groups, Westmoreland is on the verge of facing live pitching. As soon as the Red Sox staff gives him the go-ahead, based on his health and the way he’s handling batting practice, he’ll hit real pitches from a real pitcher for the first time since his surgery.

 

“They know I’m ready, and I know I’m ready,” he said. “I’m physically and mentally ready — whether I hit the ball or not — to get in the batter’s box again. To see a pitcher throw a ball at me from 60 feet away is going to be pretty special.”

 

http://www.projo.com/redsox/content/sp_bb_westmoreland_31.767cf85e.html

 

It sounds like at the very least he's going to be able to live a "normal" life physically and mentally. Good for him.

[Flynnatic10]

Nice to see he's coming back from the surgery well!

[Dojji]

If this guy makes the majors they'll make a movie about him.

[a700hitter]

It's great that the surgery went well, and his life is no longer in danger. It's grat that he is living a normal life, walking and talking. I think the next hurdle for him will be the tremendous emotional hurdle of realizing that he will never play major league baseball. The reality is that he still has a lot of difficulty tying his shoes. To rebuild the muscle memory for the refined skills needed to play major league baseball is probably not a possibility.

[BigPapiEnFuego]

I wish this dude nothing but the best.

 

 

And thanks a700, you have to make every discussion negative and f*** it up. Way to go.

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

In before the locking of the thread.

[AtWork]

I wish this dude nothing but the best.

 

 

And thanks a700, you have to make every discussion negative and f*** it up. Way to go.

 

 

Thanks for saying what we're all thinking.

[a700hitter]

I wish this dude nothing but the best.

 

 

And thanks a700, you have to make every discussion negative and f*** it up. Way to go.

The kid has been very lucky that his condition was diagnosed and repaired and that he'll be able to lead a normal life. It's a huge success story. Playing ball is physically therapeutic and right now it is a good thing. I just hope that someone close to him will be honest with him about his chances of playing Major League Ball, so he can start to build a new life for himself. That's going to be a tough emotional hurdle for a young man who has been a prime athlete his entire life. I don't know why that f***s up a discussion. It's just a reality.

[BigPapiEnFuego]

In before the locking of the thread.

 

:lol:

[BigPapiEnFuego]

The kid has been very lucky that his condition was diagnosed and repaired and that he'll be able to lead a normal life. It's a huge success story. Playing ball is physically therapeutic and right now it is a good thing. I just hope that someone close to him will be honest with him about his chances of playing Major League Ball' date=' so he can start to build a new life for himself. That's going to be a tough emotional hurdle for a young man who has been a prime athlete his entire life. I don't know why that f***s up a discussion. It's just a reality.[/quote']

 

I'm sure he's well aware of how hard it will be to make a comeback. But doctors and everyone else have been very surprised by how he is coming back. The kid doesn't need to accept that his baseball career is over. f*** that. I'm sure if he is determined enough he can make something of it.

[AtWork]

The kid has been very lucky that his condition was diagnosed and repaired and that he'll be able to lead a normal life. It's a huge success story. Playing ball is physically therapeutic and right now it is a good thing. I just hope that someone close to him will be honest with him about his chances of playing Major League Ball' date=' so he can start to build a new life for himself. That's going to be a tough emotional hurdle for a young man who has been a prime athlete his entire life. I don't know why that f***s up a discussion. It's just a reality.[/quote']

 

And how many years have you been studying brain surgery? I've worked with all kinds of people with TBI and the truth is that not even the best doctors can tell what they will or won't be able to do. The brain is much more complicated than we understand and when certain connections in the brain are broken, others are created to compromise.

[a700hitter]

I'm sure he's well aware of how hard it will be to make a comeback. But doctors and everyone else have been very surprised by how he is coming back. The kid doesn't need to accept that his baseball career is over. f*** that. I'm sure if he is determined enough he can make something of it.

That's not what I have heard from doctors. I am pulling for the kid, but I have seen these types of comebacks attempted before. JR Richard had a stroke and recovered to lead a normal life and we were all pulling for him to make it back, but he didn't. There was a pitcher on the Red Sox in the 80's that had a minor stroke, and he never made it back. I am rooting for the kid, and if our hopes get built up unrealistically and it doesn't work out, it will not be devastating like it would be for the kid if his expectations are unrealistic. I just want things to work out well for him. Is that a bad thing?

[AtWork]

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2009/7/23/1248372944860/Alberto-Contador-001.jpg

[jacksonianmarch]

And how many years have you been studying brain surgery? I've worked with all kinds of people with TBI and the truth is that not even the best doctors can tell what they will or won't be able to do. The brain is much more complicated than we understand and when certain connections in the brain are broken' date=' others are created to compromise.[/quote']

 

This is brainstem, which is a little less variable. Regardless, a700 is right. While his recovery is a great story, a big league career is pretty much out of the question. But for now, he's a nice story of perseverance. The kid goes from using a walker to hitting baseballs again. Shows you the kind of heart and determination he has.

[SoxSport]

Palumalu of the Steelers had this operation as a kid. That should be an inspiration.

[Dojji]

It comes down to his ability to reprogram his brain to do the things it used to do. Some injuries can manage that, some can't.

 

I do have to admit that baseball is such a fast-reactions game that I'm not sure I want to get my hopes up, but the surgery was fully successful, and this kid is a fighter. He's made that clear by how far he's already come.

 

Besides, you tell him he never will, that might just make him more determined to prove you wrong. When my mom had a cancer that inpinged on her brain, she wound up in a wheelchair, and a doc tried to "bring her expectations down" by telling her she'd never walk unassisted again. Over the course of the year after she was pronounced in remission, she gradually worked her way back up to a walker, then to a four-point cane, then to a normal cane, then to walking around in the stiff, awkward kinda I-had-brain-damage-in-a-motor-control-area manner that you'll know if you've ever seen it, then to getting around pretty normally -- and at least part of it was to prove the doctor wrong.

 

All the physical talent Westmoreland ever had is still there. I don't honestly know what his chances are to ever tap into it properly, but I'm leaving myself open to being pleasantly surprised on this one.

[jacksonianmarch]

It's all about location. So saying that others have had this isnt really relevant. You can have an AVM in your frontal lobe, have it resected and be no worse for wear. This was a brainstem AVM. Every single axon coming from your brain sans the first few cranial nerves pass through the brainstem. It is the part of your body that keeps you alive. Having a surgery focused there is devastating, especially in a sport where quick hands and recognition are paramount. This isnt a TBI, this is a focused neurologic injury on an absolutely vital portion of the brain. He was using a walker and had a facial droop after the surgery. He still lacks the dexterity to do basic functions yet he's giving it a go at the sport he loves. He's an inspiration, but his brain has recovered to the extent that it ever will since he's a ways out from his surgery. Now it's all about teaching himself how to do things again. And those tasks that he's been effected on will never be the same, even if he can relearn how to do them.

[AtWork]

According to all the stories, his quick hand eye coordination have recovered tremendously. It's the stuff like running mechanics and balance that he's still struggling with.

[jacksonianmarch]

According to all the stories' date=' his quick hand eye coordination have recovered tremendously. It's the stuff like running mechanics and balance that he's still struggling with.[/quote']

 

and balance is incredibly important to pretty much everything in baseball.

[Dojji]

It's also something that can gradually improve over the course of a number of years. It did for Mom.

[AtWork]

It's also something that can gradually improve over the course of a number of years. It did for Mom.

 

No doubt. He couldn't walk at first, now he's running the bases and hitting live pitching. If doctors didn't feel he had fast enough reaction times to get out of the way of a fastball up and in they wouldn't OK him for that.

[Dojji]

Pretty much. The team doctors are idiots, but I'm pretty sure they had to have a surgeon sign off on this too.

[jacksonianmarch]

It's also something that can gradually improve over the course of a number of years. It did for Mom.

 

That isnt what I meant. His brain has healed as much as it can. Now, it's all about re-learning what he did in the past. Effectively a re-wiring of what is left. After a brain injury like his, you will never get back to what you were. But you can get back to being able to walk without trouble and he should regain his balance over time with intensive therapy.

[Dojji]

The big thing is reps. That's what therapy does. It's also what practice and facing live pitching can do for a guy like Westmoreland.

 

I think the biggest place where he'll lose is in footspeed. Even if by some miracle he gets back to being a prospect, his days as a base stealer is over. The question is can he do the footwork side of what a guy does in the batter's box. If he can, he's still Officially Interesting.

[a700hitter]

The big thing is reps. That's what therapy does. It's also what practice and facing live pitching can do for a guy like Westmoreland.

 

I think the biggest place where he'll lose is in footspeed. Even if by some miracle he gets back to being a prospect, his days as a base stealer is over. The question is can he do the footwork side of what a guy does in the batter's box. If he can, he's still Officially Interesting.

He still has a lot of difficulty tying his shoes. He has huge challenges just with fully recovering normal activities of daily living. The level of coordination and muscle memory of Major League ballplayers is incredibly refined. They are very much superior to the average population in that regard.

[Dojji]

The interesting thing about brain damage is that it can kill you in one area and leave you completely unaffected in another. A brain damaged guy could concievably be unable to tie his shoes, but still hit a big league slider. The brain is a screwy little machine sometimes.

[a700hitter]

The interesting thing about brain damage is that it can kill you in one area and leave you completely unaffected in another. A brain damaged guy could concievably be unable to tie his shoes' date=' but still hit a big league slider. The brain is a screwy little machine sometimes.[/quote']That is true. My friends dad was going senile from repeated small strokes. He couldn't remember his name or address or how to do most things, but he could still play the piano with such proficiency that he played at a piano bar taking requests twice a week.

[redsoxbeatz]

"Cavernous Malformation" in the brain stem sounds GNARLY.

 

I hope this guy can bring it back.

[AtWork]

I doubt that he'll ever be an elite player, but at the rate that he's progressing making the major leagues is definitely not out of the question at this point.

[Dojji]

He was young enough when it was caught and fixed, and he's always been physically fit, so he does have a large advantage over the average schmo when it comes to recovery.