DOWN BUT NOT OUT GUTSY OUTFIELDER WON'T LET INJURY KEEP HIM OUT OF LINEUP.Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer LANCASTER - Less than a year ago, JetHawks outfielder Jamie Gann was on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of reaching his goal of playing in the big leagues. After struggling at the plate early in his professional career, Gann, always a defensive standout, made dramatic improvements in his hitting and had become a rising star in the Arizona Diamondbacks This article is about the baseball team. For other uses, see Diamondback. The Arizona Diamondbacks (also referred to as the D-backs) are a Major League Baseball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They play in the West Division of the National League. organization. A month after being promoted to Triple-A last season, Gann was thriving with the Tucson Sidewinders The Tucson Sidewinders (1998-present) are a minor league baseball team based in Tucson, Arizona. The team, which plays in the Pacific Coast League, is the Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks major-league club. , until one hot Arizona night in late June, when his life and baseball career was dramatically changed. Gann was struck in the face by a 95 mph fastball in a game against the Tacoma Rainiers The Tacoma Rainiers are a minor league baseball team that play in the Pacific Coast League, and are the AAA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Since 1960, a team in Tacoma, Washington has been in the PCL, the longest current active streak of membership in the league. . Sidewinders For the 1990s rock band, see The Sidewinders. Sidewinders is a Barbershop quartet that won the 1964 SPEBSQSA international competition. Preceded by Town and Country Four SPEBSQSA International Quartet Champions director of media relations Ryan Eigenbrode said the incident was the most frightening baseball injury he'd seen. ``You knew as soon as it hit him that it was in a bad spot,'' Eigenbrode said, ``and you could see the concern in the faces of his manager and his coaches.'' Gann doesn't recall being hit. When he regained consciousness, he was lying in a pool of blood near home plate. There are no obvious scars on the left side of his face where he was hit, but when he first viewed himself in a mirror, he could barely look. ``If you cut a basketball in half and put it by my face, that's what it looked like,'' he said. ``It was huge.'' Gann suffered a broken nasal cavity nasal cavity n. The cavity on either side of the nasal septum, extending from the nares to the pharynx, and lying between the floor of the cranium and the roof of the mouth. nasal cavity, n See cavity, nasal. , a broken mandible mandible /man·di·ble/ (man´di-b'l) the horseshoe-shaped bone forming the lower jaw, articulating with the skull at the temporomandibular joint.mandib´ular man·di·ble n. bone (upper mouth), and has had three root canals to preserve his dangling teeth. The area where he was hit remains tender. His mouth was wired shut for six weeks, during which time he lost 25 pounds. ``It was tough for me because I was finally where I needed to be, swinging the bat,'' said Gann, who was batting .333 (29 for 87) at the time. ``I was swinging the bat the best in my career. Since then, it's been kind of up and down.'' Originally drafted in the June 1996 free agent draft out of the University of Oklahoma University of Oklahoma, abbreviated OU, is a coeducational public research university located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. , he struggled offensively in stints with the High Desert Mavericks The High Desert Mavericks are a minor league baseball team in Adelanto, California, USA. Their Major League parent club is the Seattle Mariners. They are a "high-A" class team in the California League, and had been a farm team of the Kansas City Royals since 2005 before the switch. in 1997 and '98, batting .221 (60 for 267) and .225 (48 for 217), respectively. He turned the corner in 1999 at Double-A El Paso El Paso (ĕl pă`sō), city (1990 pop. 515,342), seat of El Paso co., extreme W Tex., on the Rio Grande opposite Juárez, Mex.; inc. 1873. , Texas, where he batted .262 (116 for 443) and had a career-high nine homers and 56 RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in . It's a tribute to Gann's desire that he even attempted a comeback, and he was reactivated later that summer. But he hasn't been the same since. He hit just .190 (23 for 121) the rest of the 2000 season at Tucson, and his offensive struggles carried into this season. After batting .183 (15 for 82) at El Paso, where he began the season, Gann was sent down to the Single-A JetHawks on May 1, his 26th birthday. He is now trying to resurrect his career at Lancaster and was batting .281 (9 for 32) with seven runs scored in eight games entering Wednesday night's game at Modesto. Gann said he needs to work on his consistency at the plate, and clearly isn't taking the opportunity for granted. He hustles to first after drawing a walk, and even when he's not hitting, he takes great pride in his defense. JetHawks manager Scott Coolbaugh Scott Robert Coolbaugh (June 13, 1966 in Binghamton, New York) is an American former baseball player. Coolbaugh played Major League Baseball from 1989 to 1991 for the Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres and in 1994 for the St. Louis Cardinals. , who played with Gann in 1999 when he was a player/coach at El Paso, said he's the best defensive center fielder in the organization, including former Gold Glove award winner Steve Finley. He said Gann has always been a gamer and that his comeback is no surprise to him. ``He's got some toughness to him,'' Coolbaugh said. ``He's probably the type of person who can overcome something like that, and it looks like he has.'' Bean-ball victims often are haunted by the memories, and so the Diamondbacks offered Gann access to a sports psychologist, which he declined. He has been playing since he was 3 and had never before been hit in the head. He says he remains unafraid. ``I pretty much just try to block it out and concentrate on what I'm trying to do. When they pitch me inside, I really don't even think about it. I probably wouldn't have thought about it (last year) after I got hit, but I had to wear a face guard.'' The thought of giving up on his career never occurred to Gann. He had already put too much into a game he loves. It seems the incident only fueled his desire. ``It makes you even more hungry when something like that happens,'' he said. ``They're going to have to take the uniform off me. I'm never going to go home, they're going to have to make me go home.'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: JetHawks center fielder Jamie Gann is on the comeback trail after recovering from a 95 mph fastball pitch that shattered his face last year. Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
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