University of Minnesota Athletics
Catching up with Ty McDevitt
5/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Ty McDevitt (Apple Valley, Minn.) suffered an arm injury early last season and underwent Tommy John surgery. He recovered in time to pitch in the second week of the Gophers' 2015 season and has made a dozen appearances entering this weekend's series against UC Irvine.
Q: Did your recovery from Tommy John surgery go faster, slower or about the same as you thought it would?
A: I think compared to past surgeries, it was a lot quicker. I had pretty much told the doctors, told Eli (Mansfield, the team trainer), 14, "Hey, I want to pitch this year." I know it's not typical recovery time, but I was going to kind of push the pace from the start. I told them, "Hey, it's going to be your job to hold me back if I'm doing something stupid." But I've always been a guy who tries to push the pace on that kind of stuff. I don't like sitting out. From Day 1, I tried to stay ahead of schedule, and I think I have up to this point.
Q: What were some of the keys to be able to have that fast recovery?
A: Honestly, I focus and have focused for a long time on keeping myself in shape, good nutrition, all that kind of stuff, and most importantly, just educating myself on some alternative techniques with stuff. One of the big things I did was I got it moving and tried to get a full range of motion really quickly afterwards to minimize scar tissue in there. Just kind of educating myself on the injury and some success stories, and also some stuff to stay away from, was pretty big in my recovery, I think.
Q: What did it feel like during your first pitching appearance of this season, especially at a place like Texas with a strong college baseball tradition?
A: It was fun. The biggest thing was I had been pretty much out of competition for more than a year, so it was a little odd to be standing on the mound again in actual game competition facing hitters. Up until that point, I had only faced guys in a cage just a couple times. Just hoping that stuff came back to me. One of the biggest difficulties is there was still a gap between what I was used to being able to do and what I was physically capable of doing. Trying to get over that hurdle was tough.
Q: How have you seen your arm progress through the season?
A: I started off the year and it was pretty much a roll of the dice every day to figure out how it was going to feel each day. Some days it would feel great, other days I had to really fight through, breaking through some scar tissue and stuff like that, inflammation. The last three weeks, I've gotten to a spot where it's more stabilized and I feel pretty good. I'm bouncing back quickly. I've got my routine set. It's definitely progressed a little different than most years. Most years the arm gets kind of worn down throughout the year, and this year I feel like every day I go out there I've got a little more to it.
Q: Did you have any favorite off-field road trip activities this year or in past years?
A: Obviously D.C. this year was pretty cool. I love going to Florida. I love the beach there. My grandma and grandpa have a place in Fort Myers, so being able to see them and go down there with my family is pretty fun. Other than that, just at the hotel with the guys playing poker.
