Six Days After Scary Injury Caleb Joseph Returns to the Orioles
*Originally posted on NBCSports.com
Joseph was injured in the eighth inning of Monday’s game against Boston, and his surgery took place at the University of Maryland Medical Center on Monday night.
The Orioles placed Joseph on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday.
“I’m feeling really good. Much better. Obviously, I was in a lot of pain there, but the past few days, I’ve turned the corner and I’m feeling really good,” Joseph said.
Joseph doesn’t know how long he might be out. Injuries such as the one he suffered are rare and there aren’t many comparisons.
Rest is the most important thing for Joseph for now.
“Anything past that we’re just still a little unsure right now. Rest is the number one thing. It’s working so far, so hopefully as it gets closer to that date, we’ve got a better timeframe,” Just watching the games, and he’s found some differences.
“It’s been tough watching the games on TV. It’s different. It’s a lot different. Hitting is so much easier on TV than it is here. I feel like I can hit .400 right now,” Joseph said.
The experience was frightening. It was the first surgery he had, and as soon as he went to his hospital room, he turned on the television.
“It did happen quick, and before I know it, I was in a bed, I was in a room, watching a replay of the game. About every three hours, I got to watch the incident over and over and over.”
Joseph always has a good sense of humor since he’s had to endure an absurd amount of silly jokes about the injury, which was serious.
Besides his humor, Joseph is tough. He stayed in the game after the injury and was on deck when it ended.
“I just kind of grit my teeth and just kept going. As a backup, you want to give the starter his day off. I don’t know, I just refused not to come out. It’s just something I guess I’ve kind of prided myself in for a long time, just trying to stay in the game no matter what. But of course, if it got to a certain point where I felt like I was going to hinder the team at any point, then I would have come out. But I still felt like I could play,” Joseph said.
He appreciates that manager Buck Showalter put him in touch with John Kruk, with whom Showalter worked at ESPN. Kruk had testicular cancer.
“I was reminded too when I went there that if I was to let this injury go, that was one of the things they talked about. If I wouldn’t have gone in and gotten checked, and if I wouldn’t have had the surgery, there’s a much greater chance of that testicular cancer,” Joseph said.
For now, the Orioles want to make sure there are no mental hurdles when Joseph returns. They’ll experiment with new protective cups.
“One of them is made of Kevlar, so it’s pretty much indestructible and I think we’re going to put one to the test here in the next day or two. Maybe some ammunition, explosives, stuff like that. We’re going to put it to the test. Any sort of time you can get peace of mind in that area, it’s always great. But these are such random incidents, such freak accidents that happen, that you’re really setting yourself up any time you get back there. You just never know what can and can’t happen,” Joseph said.
