Insert Boondock Saints pun here:

I realize that things have slowed down considerably here at SPLP. Today is the first day it hasn't rained in Boston since May and the baseball regular season is entering the home stretch. How many more baseball posts can I write anyway? The NFL preseason is picking up steam with dumb injuries piling up by the second. (Damn you Donteezy! Don't be messing with my boy B.E. like that.) The USA Basketball team is set to take on some tougher competition in the quest to get back the gold in Beijing. Leon is no doubt rocking some intense offseason workouts and the last of the NBA free agents are signing with news today that Andre Iguodala staying in Philly. But in light of this apparent writing malaise, I thought I'd write a bit about someone who is facing a more serious kind of fatigue. An athlete who up until a few years ago, seemed destined for greatness and appeared to be blessed with infinite talent. (Here's a hint, he's the dude in the picture.)


Rocco Baldelli was drafted by the Tampa Ray Devil Rays in the first round of the 2000 amateur draft and made his debut with the team three years later. Baldelli was a star athlete at Bishop Hendricken High School in Rhode Island. (Warwick...ewww.) He was one year older than me but I never made it over there to see him play. I was clearly doing other constructive things in high school... Anyway, people in the area who did watch him were pretty heavy on the hyperbole in their descriptions. (Of course, one of the best athletes to ever come out of the Ocean State is not saying all that much.) But his rookie of the year caliber season in 2003 sure provided some validaty to all the buildup. Baldelli played 156 games, drove in 78 runs, had 27 stolen bases and hit .289. Oh yeah, he played a mean center field too. In fact, the next season, he led all major league center fielders in range factor. That year, he also cut his strikeout total by 40 and hit five more home runs. But Tampa Bay wasn't the juggernaut that they are now and anyone outside of Rhode Island and Florida weren't paying too much attention to this rising star. And unfortunately for the 6'4, 200 pound phenom, this is where this starting going south.


During the offseason following 2004, Rocco tore his ACL and was scheduled to be out until the All Star break. But during his rehab, he managed to hurt his elbow so severely that he needed Tommy John surgery. (Fun fact: Raiders kicker Sabastion Janikowski has had tommy john surgery. What?) It is rare that a position player needs the surgery but that put him on the shelf until June of the 2006 campaign. He came back in great shape however and again put up some good numbers. In 364 at bats, Baldelli had 16 homers and hit .302. So okay, minor setback but things were definitely looking up moving forward. Until he pulled a hamstring during spring training the next year. Well, compared to a torn ACL and an elbow surgery, a pulled hammy doesn't seem to bad. Here is where things go from south to just plain weird.

He played 35 games up until May 15th but was placed on the DL again because of the hamstring. He tried to come back but aggravated it again in a minor league game. Along with the continued muscle injuries, Baldelli started to notice that he began tiring very quickly during workouts. He missed the rest of the year. By now everyone was starting to wonder what the problem was. And even after extensive testing, doctors could only say that he was suffering from a "mitochondrial disorder" where his body wasn't producing enough ATP which is what the human body uses to power cells. (Biology, you scary!) After failing to comeback during spring training of '08, the team again put Baldelli on the DL with an unknown return date and also failed to pick up the option on his contract for the following year. Now don't get me wrong, Josh Hamilton is my boy, but he nearly threw away his gifts (and life for that matter) by abusing drugs before making a storied comeback this year. But using drugs was his choice. Rocco Baldelli didn't choose to have his body fail him.

Ironically, the Rays activated Rocco this week when both Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria went on the DL. He has played in two games so far and made a great diving catch that had everyone holding their breath. While he won't be able to play back to back games for the foreseeable future, Baldelli hopes to contribute to a team that is now poised to enter the postseason for the first time in franchise history. It is unsure whether or not he'll be able to play past this year or if a team will even take a chance on him. Perhaps doctors will be able to better diagnosis him and provide some sort of treatment options. But like Bo Jackson, Baldelli will probably go down in the history books as an athlete with unlimited potential and talent whose injuries destroyed what could have been a Hall of Fame type career. And like Bo, Rocco Baldelli deserves better.