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RACGOFAR
208 Posts |
 Posted - 02/09/2012 : 13:14:35
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I found this blog recently and its a tremendous resource for any player or parent dreaming of college baseball. Its written by a D1 level pitcher who has his head on straight and gets it.
http://joshherzenberg.blogspot.com/
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rippit
667 Posts |
Posted - 02/09/2012 : 17:29:37
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| I got to the 2nd most recent blog about the semi formal date, driving a car, and moving into his college dorm room. Broke into tears and had to stop reading! |
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21BS21
28 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2012 : 22:48:10
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Rag
Thank you for sharing this blog. My daughter made her 1st college start today after coming off her 2nd ACL operation and has expressed similar thoughts. (The 2nd operation was by Dr. Andrews around the same time as this guy’s operation) She still has another month before she can start pitching again which is what she was recruited for. (Played 1st today) I hope she can find the time to read this. From what I have already read, it would be good for any young athlete to read. |
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Josh Herzenberg
12 Posts |
Posted - 02/11/2012 : 11:14:52
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RACGOFAR- Thank you very much for sharing the link to the blog. As the writer/owner of the blog page I am able to see where the hits on the page come from, and saw an enormous jump in views stemming from this website. I must admit that I was unfamiliar with this forum until I stumbled across it through the blog, although I do find it to be an absolutely wonderful resource for amateur players.
I felt the urge to join and comment here because of the amount of views I've received from the people viewing this forum. I started this blog back in July once I was informed of the necessity to received Tommy John Surgery. I try as best as I can to document my progress once a week, checking in and writing about my experiences through the recovery process. The amount of views on the blog have consistently gone up every week since I started it, largely with the help of websites like this one advertising my writing.
For those of you that have logged in and read through some of my posts, I greatly appreciate it. I hope that you have found the information worthwhile and the material to be significant. If you are interested in any further conversation with me, you are more than welcome to email me directly at joshherzenberg@gmail.com. I appreciate the support from each and every one of you.
~Josh Herzenberg |
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RACGOFAR
208 Posts |
Posted - 02/12/2012 : 21:49:28
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Josh,
Best of luck on your recovery. Keep chasing your dream and don't ever let someone else talk you out of it. Keep posting and welcome to NWGA. Thanks for sharing!
Alan Cleveland
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Josh Herzenberg
12 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2012 : 18:48:53
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Alan,
Thanks for the well wishes, I really appreciate it. Tommy John recovery is a long battle and a road that comes with quite a roller coaster of emotions. Hopefully in the end, I will be better for it. For those interested in continuing to follow along, I just wrote a new post. I think it does a pretty good job of showing the difficulty of the rehab process...some of which is not often discussed in situations like this. Nonetheless, I hope that you all find reading along pleasurable and continue to follow. I will continue to stop in here and contribute when/where I can, as I feel as though message boards like these are fabulous resources for many people interested in learning about the marvelous game of baseball.
Here is the direct link to the new post: http://joshherzenberg.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentines-day.html
Thanks again
~Josh |
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Gus Ball Still Wins
77 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2012 : 13:23:19
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Thanks, Josh. Good luck with the rehab.
If you have the time, I'd like to hear your perspective on baseball before college. Specifically, topics such as travel ball vs. rec ball; dad coaches v. paid coaches; pitch counts at younger ages; potential burn out, etc. Also, is there anything you think you could have done to avoid your injury? Stuff like that...or any of the other topics you see debated in these forums.
I know as a college level student athlete your time is limited, so no need to respond.
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Josh Herzenberg
12 Posts |
Posted - 02/15/2012 : 16:32:42
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Gus Ball Still Wins,
Sure thing. My high school baseball experience may have been a bit different than some other experiences. I won plenty of awards and had plenty of publicity. On paper, my career probably seems to be something that was very lauded and enjoyable. In reality, that was not the case. The head coach of my high school team and I clashed nearly everyday, to the point where there were many nights when I'd come home from practice on the verge of tears and contemplating quitting the game altogether. It took a sitting down with my parents and sometimes a stern lecture about the importance of perseverance to convince me to stick it out. Looking back, one of the most proud aspects of my high school baseball career was the fact that I kept at it, I stuck with it and I gave it my all. Once I graduated I cut ties with my high school program and to this day have never set foot back on our baseball facilities or contacted anyone involved with the coaching staff.
One of the big aspects of high school baseball that remains true as the most important facet to me is the sense of camaraderie amongst teammates. To this day some of my fondest memories were of the friendships I made at an early age while playing for my school team (whether that was in 7th grade or 12th grade). Much of my foundation in terms of proper social actions and maturity with respect to my approach to a situation within a group comes from my days playing for my school.
I'll give it my best effort in addressing each question above in order. I played Little League through the age of 12, and then moved onto modified baseball in 7th grade. Through freshman year of high school, I played for the high school varsity coach's summer team and snuck in games whenever scheduling would allow with local rec league teams during those summers. During the summer after freshman year of high school I was approached about trying out for a very well respected elite travel team in my area. I showed up at the game that Saturday and performed well enough to earn a spot in the organization. I continued to play for this organization until I graduated high school and moved onto college.
Travel ball to me was crucial because it allowed me to 1) experience some of the highest level baseball available for my age group and 2) create friendships and networks outside of just my hometown. I was blessed to be able to be with an organization that wasn't enormously expensive and had coaches that cared about the best interest of the players. My advice towards travel teams is this: do your research and make sure that you know what you're getting into before making a commitment. There are plenty of teams out there that are created with the intent of making a quick buck, and that is not what a player needs. Play baseball at the highest level that you possibly can, within the realm of your own personal capabilities (both physically and financially).
My experience with rec ball was simply that it provided me with the opportunity to get some more at-bats and have some fun with my friends. In the area that I grew up in rec ball provides little opportunity to advance in the game because quite candidly, the quality of play isn't that good. That is certainly not a general statement, as I'm sure there are many high quality local leagues around the country that could be extremely beneficial. But in my particular experience, it really wasn't.
Dad coaches vs. paid coaches is always a sticky subject because there are many pros and cons to each scenario. Ideally, a coach who cares about the well-being of the players and doesn't play favorites is the person I want to play for. I really couldn't care less if he/she has a child on the team or not. But of course, that is not always the case. I think the best way to go about approaching this particular situation is the same as my above comment pertaining to travel ball...do your research and assess the benefits and negatives. There are probably tons of great coaches who are dads, and tons of great coaches who are paid. Conversely, the opposite applies as well. It's just a matter of the specificity of the person.
Pitch counts at a younger age is actually something that I think is overstressed. So much time is spent thinking about how many pitches a kid throws and how many days there are in between his pitching appearances that often times, all other aspects of arm health are completely negated. Do I think kids should be throwing 200 pitches in a game? No. But I don't believe its more important to keep a kid's pitch count at an extremely low number (and continue to neurotically do so) when that kid is playing other positions in other games and not taking proper care of his arm. I'll lay out two different hypothetical situations:
1) A 14 year old pitcher throws a complete game, 90 pitches on a Sunday. He lightly tosses on Monday, long tosses on Tuesday, bullpens Wednesday, plays shortstop in a game Thursday, plays first base in a game Friday, light tosses Saturday, throws another 90 pitch complete game on Sunday.
2) A 14 year old pitcher throws 2 innings, 28 pitches in game one of a doubleheader on Sunday. In game two, he catches the entire game. On Monday, he doesn't pick up a ball once. On Tuesday, he catches the entire game. On Wednesday, he pitches 3 innings, 40 pitches. On Thursday, he doesn't pick up a ball once. On Friday, he plays second base the entire game. On Saturday, he doesn't pick up a ball once. On Sunday, he pitches 2 innings once again.
Which one is the healthier sequence? To me...100% slam dunk, #1.
With respect to my injury, I believe the general consensus was that it was a product of overuse. I had 8 appearances and 6 starts before my injury in April of 2011, and didn't have a single start in which I threw less than 8 innings. There were a few instances when I'd throw a complete game on a weekend and throw a few innings in relief during a midweek non-conference game. Some may point at my head coach and say that it's his fault that my arm was abused. Yes, I admit and I think he does too that he deserves SOME of the blame. But, there are many other reasons why I may have gotten hurt. Perhaps I didn't condition myself appropriately in between starts to adequately prepare myself. Perhaps the weather caused me to not warm up properly when I threw. Perhaps I had some sort of mechanical inconsistency that wore down my arm. Were the amount of innings that I threw in the amount of time that I threw them too much? Probably. But that's not just my coach's fault, that's my fault also. I'm 21 years old, I'm mature enough to realize my body is deteriorating and should be wary enough to say no. So in the end, my arm is definitely a result of overuse. However that overuse is definitely the result of many different contributing factors, not one single instance in particular.
Hope this all helps, glad to be able to contribute my opinions in some way. |
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Josh Herzenberg
12 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 10:08:28
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Thanks to all who have tuned into the blog thus far...the number of views have drastically increased since being introduced to this message board. For those interested in continuing to follow along, I just wrote a new post. Here is the direct link: http://joshherzenberg.blogspot.com/2012/05/throwing-alone.html
I try to update the blog once a week so once again for all those interested in keeping up with the progress, I would absolutely love seeing newcomers and more interest. Thanks once again for the support, I keep getting hits from this forum and its absolutely fabulous! |
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HITANDRUN
436 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 10:53:43
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| #1 would be my pick also. |
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Josh Herzenberg
12 Posts |
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Josh Herzenberg
12 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 00:11:31
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Once again thank you so much to al of you for the outpouring of support. I'd like to share my most recent blog post with everyone here, which outlines my pitching outing yesterday: http://joshherzenberg.blogspot.com/2012/06/official-second-chance.html
Note: I'm not making any monetary profit off of this blog page so I hope that my posts here are not viewed as advertising. I am simply interested in sharing my story and experiences in hopes that some people can relate in a positive way in the future. |
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tribequest13
4 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 09:27:41
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| Josh shows up everywhere!! Josh is a great kid and deserves all the success in the world. This is Will @ Josh. |
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Gus Ball Still Wins
77 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 10:18:17
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| Well done, Josh. Be a good steward of your second chance...not everybody gets one. I wish you the best. |
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hshuler
1074 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2012 : 12:51:10
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Josh,
I'm rooting for you, Man. I'll be checking your blog regularly for good news.
HS |
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Josh Herzenberg
12 Posts |
Posted - 06/08/2012 : 00:17:49
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| Thanks to everyone for the support. I'll be sure to continue to update with the progress. As I mentioned previously, feel free to reach out directly at joshherzenberg@gmail.com if you'd like to talk. |
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Great Resource on Collegiate Baseball Experience
