Good baseball and good stories

A national baseball writer once said he doesn't root for specific teams, just good stories. Me on the other hand, I root for the Cardinals and good stories. Stories like the remarkable comeback of Daniel Ponce de Leon.

The pitcher was in Cape Girardeau Monday as part of the Cardinal Caravan. Before heading out to the Osage Centre gym where Cardinal fans awaited, he talked with me about a head injury that could have ended more than his baseball career.

In July 2017 while playing for the Cardinals AAA affiliate, Ponce de Leon was struck in the temple by a line drive to the head. He was rushed to the hospital in Des Moines, Iowa where the Memphis Redbirds were playing and underwent a successful surgery.

But even with good medical attention, recovering from this injury could have taken the young pitcher down a dark path. His faith, however, was a source of encouragement. If you look at his Twitter profile, he keeps it pretty simple: "Christian. Psalm 27:1."

"That's the driving factor in all of this. 'The Lord is my light and salvation, who shall I fear,'" he said quoting the Bible verse. "That's just really where I get my strength from. I think I could have really gone down a lot of dark roads. It kept me on track and just really brightened my day."

A scar and dent in his head remain, but so do the memories of fans reaching out with their well wishes.

"Just thankful for all the Cardinal fans, honestly," he said. "They've reached out to me via mail, email, social media. My wife, they've reach out [through her] to me. Many ways. They reached out to my dad. There are so many good people out in this world and it shows that there's still a lot of love left here."

With 31 strikeouts and a 2.73 ERA in his rookie season, Ponce de leon is excited for the 2019 season. The offseason training has been the same for him, though he's worked on his curveball more.

On the Cardinals' trade for slugger Paul Goldschmidt and signing left-handed relief pitcher Andrew Miller: "Those are huge additions to our team. We're definitely a World Series contender. Hopefully they can jump right in the club and act like they've been here, and it will be really good."

Several of the young players who were called up before him turned out to be good mentors. "They told me what to do and how to do it, and that's kind of who I should learn from since they're doing the same things as me. And then later on as the year went on, Waino (Adam Wainwright) started coming around and then a couple other guys, [including Yadier] Molina."

Speaking of the Cardinals catcher, Ponce de leon said it's comfortable having him behind home plate. "You have him back there and you just feel confident he's back there and we're going to get the right pitch," he said.

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Another baseball story I've followed this week was the 2019 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame selection announcement. Four players will be inducted in Cooperstown, New York, this summer, including pitcher Mariano Rivera. The Yankee was baseball's last player to wear Jackie Robinson's No. 42. And he is the first to receive 100 percent of the vote from the baseball writers.

Rivera didn't start out as a pitcher, let alone a closer. The lanky Panamanian ballplayer graduated high school at the age of 16 and, according to Sports Illustrated, grew up playing with cardboard gloves, tree limbs and broom handles in lieu of real equipment.

When he was brought up to the big leagues, Rivera was a starting pitcher -- and didn't experience much success. But in 1997 while playing catch, Rivera's casual throws began to cut. The ball looked like a normal fastball but at the last minute would cut to the left. This was the birth of his now-famous cut fastball, also known as the cutter.

Hitters knew what he was about to throw, but broken bat after broken bat proved few could muster a hit.

While he will go into the hall of fame for his pitching success, Rivera's humility is what made him such an endearing person. Even this week as writers and broadcasters heaped praise upon him, he would deflect the credit to God.

When interviewed by CBN News during his book release a few years ago, Rivera said he did not want to be known for his numbers but rather who he is as a man.

"It is because God, Christ took those abilities and took it to a different level," he told CBN. "The Lord gave me the strength to do all that stuff. So therefore I can never speak about myself, but the Lord."

Spring training is just a couple of weeks away. Soon, there will be games and another season to enjoy. As for me, I'll be rooting for guys like Ponce de Leon and Rivera -- and hopefully the Cardinals playing in the World Series.

Lucas Presson is assistant publisher of the Southeast Missourian.