Freshman first baseman Jordan Brower’s head might bear the scars of an injury from an accident, but this is not a story of pain and suffering. This is a story of recovery.
“The only time I cried in the hospital was because I didn’t get to see any of my team,” Brower said.
In Cal Poly’s game against Missouri on Feb. 18, Brower was struck in the head with a baseball bat while standing in the dugout, hospitalizing him for five days — with two spent in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Since then, Brower has been cleared to practice but not play. His full recovery will involve, at the least, a stoppage of internal bleeding in the brain, a headache free week and a second concussion test. Although he appears to be two thirds of the way there, doctors said Brower is still a couple months from getting back on the field.
It was a freak accident, to say the least. Freshman first baseman Tim Wise was swinging a bat in the on deck circle during a rain delay in the Mustangs’ second game of the season. Wise lost his grip, and the bat ricocheted into the dugout — where it hit Brower in the head.
The team might have stood around in shock after Brower dropped to the ground, but their real influence came in the days and weeks following.
“Any time one of our of guys goes down, especially in a scary situation, we’re going to try and rally around him,” junior shortstop Mike Miller said. “He’s just done a great job coming back. When something like that happens you’re concerned, not even as a baseball player, but just a person. That could have changed his life completely.”
From the first moments after the injury, the team made a conscious effort to aid his recovery by any means. That is what meant most to Brower, even if he cannot remember it.
Reed Reilly, a freshman pitcher and Brower’s roommate, was away when the incident occurred. He said he received text messages from Brower’s brother that appeared to indicate that Brower was in serious condition. So, as a friend and teammate, on his way back to San Luis Obispo, Reilly stopped by the hospital and sat at Brower’s bedside to keep him company for five hours.
Brower would wake up briefly and talk to Reilly for a few fleeting moments then settle back into his pillow before awakening again to ask the same questions and give the same responses.
“I tried to keep it as mellow as possible,” Reilly said. “So we talked about school and baseball … It was really repetitive.”
After a few days Brower had recovered enough to be released from the hospital and taken to his home in Newbury Park, Calif. where he remained for nearly three weeks.
Almost every day, Brower would Skype or text a teammate from San Luis Obispo as they checked on his progress, like any family would. A bond that head coach Larry Lee has been impressed with this year.
“We’ve had a really good culture in our team the last few years,” Lee said. “We’re very tight knit and it’s important. They enjoy being around each other, so that part of the equation has been good.”
And that equation has added up to a steadily recovering Brower, who attributes his success in overcoming a fractured skull and nagging headaches to his team.
However, upon returning to Cal Poly, Brower was hit by the reality that comes with being a student-athlete. Finals week was approaching and Brower’s professors were only somewhat receptive to his pleas for more time.
One professor, he said, based his grade 100 percent on the final exam and his solution to Brower’s missed time was to find more people to study with.
So Brower did just that, and earned a solid B after missing more than 30 percent of class. Another professor gave Brower an additional three weeks into spring quarter to finish a final essay in what he saw as a just extension.
Yet it’s not just classes that Brower is back in just six weeks after the accident; he is back on the baseball diamond in a limited role.
“Right when I got back, I had to wear a helmet in the dugout, when I played catch, when I hit,” Brower said. “(The doctors) were really cautious.”
Recently he’s shed the helmet, except for when batting, and the team has seen his desire to return to life as usual on the field.
“It’s been one of those things where he’s been trying to get back and the doctors keep telling him, ‘Gotta slow down, gotta slow down,’” Miller said.
But with a summer-time clearance coming up for Brower, he’s ready to play ball in Oregon and get back to his normal, baseball-filled life. Gone are the fears that gripped the players in the immediate aftermath, replaced with a feeling that all will be better soon.
“It could have been a very tragic story,” Miller said. “But the way it’s working out now, it’s going to be a positive recovery, and he’s going to get a chance to come back out and play the game he loves.”