I'd like to share with you what was going through my head on that first day of seeing live hitters (Wednesday, March 6th) at Cohen Stadium again. I stepped on the hill that day and everything felt fine. I felt overwhelmingly comfortable and fresh.
The mound felt the same, the slope looked the same and so did the pitching rubber and the trajectory towards home plate. My arm felt good and the landing was still soft. I was still carving up hitters. Nothing seemed to feel any different. The outing marked my third year in spring training with El Paso. I was back at Cohen Stadium again
Back to the place where it all began.
We opened up our exhibition schedule on May 8th with a big win over the Military All-Star team. The pre-game festivities saw each team come together before the game and partake in a ceremony that beautified the life of a fallen solider. The fallen solider's family was on hand and we all had the chance to watch a video of remembrance of him. It was an emotional day for sure. By the end of the night, we had claimed an 18-4 victory.
Our second (and final) exhibition game was played last night as we fell to the Sioux City Explorers by a minimal margin. The game was a tuneup for Thursday night's season opener in which D.J. Mattox will take the mound for the Diablos.
I'm set to start Saturday night's game. Saturday nights always seem to draw a nice crowd and I'm super pumped because I think a few more may be on hand to witness my return to Cohen Stadium. I would like to get up to University Medical Center before Saturday to see the crew of doctors that did my surgery last July.
Everytime I slip away from reminding myself how lucky I am to be where I am today, I seem to have something come into my life to put me back on track again. It brings me back to my feet and gives me strength.
I'll leave you with a quote that was spoken yesterday from our team doctor to our trainer, "David Whigham's case is a miracle. There are some times in the medical world where you can't explain how someone can come back from something so tragic. His recovery is definitely a miracle."
God Bless.
