Slayden hopes for strong return from injury

With the new baseball season starting today, outfielder Jeremy Slayden will be making his return to the diamond after being absent for nearly a year. Slayden tore his right rotator cuff last March after playing in only nine games and is eager to return.

He had surgery and has been rehabilitating his arm during the fall to get back onto the field and contribute again for the Jackets. Despite the injury, Slayden is a preseason All-ACC selection.

"I think everybody is really excited about [the new season] right now," Slayden said. "We feel really good about our hitting. Our position players are doing a great job both offensively and defensively. Our pitching has been solid in our practices. We feel really good about the young guys coming in. There were some big shoes to fill, but we feel that we are really solid in all the positions."

One of the advantages or disadvantages, depending on the way it is perceived by the individual, of being an older player is that they are now counted on to mentor the younger players and introduce them to the Tech system.

Slayden has neither shied away from the increased responsibility, nor frowned upon the opportunity to be a leader on this team. Like many top baseball schools, starters at Tech often leave before their final year of eligibility to play professionally, so having a player with as much talent and experience is rare.

"Being a fourth-year and having gone through adversity, I know what to tell guys when they are dealing with hard stuff," Slayden said. "I've also had some success and I know what that's like, and I can help guys in that arena. There are some guys that I'm friends with and a lot of them are younger, and it's fun to talk to them about growing up through the Georgia Tech baseball system. Some guys do come and talk to me whether it be baseball or off the field. That's a good thing."

Like most kids growing up playing baseball, Jeremy looked to follow in his father's footsteps, and he took the lessons that he learned from him to better himself on and off the diamond. Slayden looked to his father's idol and had a few of his own to watch how they played the game.

"There wasn't a particular player [that I idolized] but a lot of players," Slayden said. "I always really looked up to my father. He was a former athlete and played baseball in college at Murray State in Kentucky. I always looked up to him, and he knew a lot about hitting, so I learned a lot from him. He idolized George Brett, so I always looked at George Brett as far as a hitter. I also looked at Ken Griffey Jr. and some other more modern players when I was younger."

Like Griffey, Slayden has been battling injuries for several years, but this hasn't deterred him from seeing a positive view of the events of the past or his outlook on the future.

"It's hard to deal with injuries," Slayden said. "Even when I was playing in my sophomore and freshman years, I was dealing with injuries, so I have kind of watched [Griffey]. I've learned that I need to enjoy this game and that I can't take it for granted. There was a time in my life where I thought that I could control my destiny and myself as a player. I've learned that there are only certain things that I can control, but one of those things is being able to enjoy the day, the game, the people that you are around and giving it my best effort. Those are the things that I take pride in and want to do really well."

It often takes a while for a difficult emotional situation to sink in, and that was the case for Slayden.

"I think that the day that we said I was not going to be playing anymore, I had surgery the very next day," Slayden said. "Once you have surgery and something like that done to your body, it sinks in pretty well when you are immobile. Over the next month, it really sunk in that this is the first time in my life that I won't be playing in a baseball season. After having that surgery done, I knew right then and there that it was over. I just had to start preparing my mind for enjoying my rehab as much as I could."

After any injury, the rehab period is crucial to a player's recovery. The style of the rehab program that is used can be the difference in players ever playing again or further injuring themselves.

"We were on a pretty strict rehab program," Slayden said. "We really took our time with it, and they never pushed me past where I wanted to go until it was needed. By the time that it was needed, my arm was ready to do it. It was never that bad, but at first I was tentative. We were only throwing from 25 feet, so it wasn't that big of a deal."

After being away from baseball for almost a year and not being able to utilize the arm for several months after the surgery, Slayden's arm has almost made a full recovery. The arm is far enough along that it will not keep him out of any action at the start of the season.

"[The shoulder] is pretty good," Slayden said. "I think that it still has a little ways to go in terms of being great every day, but I've thrown the best that I've thrown in five years the other day. My arm has been bothering me for five years now, but the other day we took infield, and I threw, and it felt great. It was a little sore after that, but it felt really good."

Coaches tend to be harsh critics of a player's development. They want their players to understand the areas in which they need improvement. This is especially true for the more veteran players who they feel can handle the criticism, but Tech Head Coach Danny Hall had nothing but positive remarks to make about Slayden.

"Jeremy Slayden, who missed most of last year with shoulder surgery, has come back fully strong from that," Coach Hall said. "He had a great fall offensively. I look for Jeremy to have a breakout year. He has worked very hard through rehab. I think the fact that he missed a year has freshened his perspective on baseball. I just see him having a lot of fun and working very hard to really prove to everyone what a really great player he is. I think we have three excellent starting outfielders."

Similar to most individuals growing up in the Bible Belt, spirituality plays a major role in shaping who an individual is and their perspective of the world. This holds true for Slayden who, even when facing adversity, found a way to enjoy it, and take it as a lesson.

"[My spirituality] helped me a lot during tough times," Slayden said. "Last spring when I couldn't play, I couldn't move around because I had a hurt back and arm. Nobody knew about my back problems, but it was giving me problems, so I couldn't move much. During that time, I didn't know what to do, and I didn't know where my life was going. I didn't know if I'd get to play baseball again with my surgery, so I just kind of had to rely on God. I had to realize that he has a plan for my life, and I've got to have confidence in that."

After the scare of the shoulder surgery, Jeremy had to face the fact that he might never be able to play baseball again. This led him to thinking of what would happen after his playing days were over.

"Sometimes I think of [life] after baseball, but as far as a career path I'm not sure exactly what I would want to get into," Slayden said. "I know that I would enjoy sales or business, and I am a Management major. If I happen to come back, I would graduate in the fall. My spiritual life and church life is a big deal to me, so there might be some areas there that I would like to get into or be a part of. There are several ways that it can go, but right now I'm focused so much on baseball that I'm not really thinking about anything else with the season coming up."

Going into last season, Slayden was a highly-touted prospect, but after the injury he decided to get a medical redshirt and come back for another season with the Jackets. Much like any other player, Slayden has his preferences to where he'd like to go when he's drafted.

"I think that it would be really neat to go with the Atlanta Braves," Slayden said. "I'm familiar with them, and know people in their system. The Boston Red Sox would also be good because I know a lot of guys in [their system]. Pretty much right now, I'm just looking forward to that part of life coming up after the season."

Slayden and the rest of the Jackets will be in action this weekend. Today they will be hosting Georgia State at 2 p.m. at Russ Chandler Stadium in the season opener for No. 13 Tech. The team will be traveling for Saturday and Sunday afternoon games in Statesboro against Georgia Southern.