Corey Koskie’s Long Road Back

March 08, 2009 — It was a one-line report among the transactions page that caught my eye last Sunday, March 01:

CHICAGO CUBS-Agreed to terms with INF Corey Koskie on a minor league contract.

In less than 15 words, I found myself swept away to my first season of watching the Salt Lake franchise.  The year was 1998. The youngest player on the team back then was A.J. Pierzynski, a fresh-faced 21-year old with an even fresher lip. After spending most of the season in a Double-A New Britain Rock Cats uniform, Torii Hunter flashed through town for a couple dozen games before earning his one-way plane ride to the big leagues. Speedy in speech and sprint, Chris Latham stole 29 bases. Scott Stahoviak  hit for the cycle. Benj Sampson and Travis Baptist broke into the Twins bullpen that year. It was the summer of Jeff Harris and his 8 wins and 3 saves in 18 closing opportunities. Harris became a BeesGal fave after I realized he spent every Sunday sitting at the player’s autograph table and signed autographs before and after every game, win or lose.

Up in the Twin Cities, Tom Kelly ruled with an iron hand and more than occasionally, a concrete noggin. The following season, for example, T.K. would keep David Ortiz down at Triple-A for nearly the entire season, proclaiming to the Minnesota press that Ortiz wasn’t major league material. Back then, Gardy was still an infield coach. Trainer Rick McSwane and pitching coach Rick Anderson were still minor leaguers.  I remember Skipper Phil Roof leaving his starting pitcher in a game to work himself out of a jam, . . .during the playoffs.

And I remember Corey Koskie. Big bat and fearless glove at 3rd base. He’d throw himself in the path of the ball to get his glove on it. I suppose it helped he was a two-sport athlete through college—corner infielder and hockey goalie. Ouch. Talk about being a puck, er, . . .I mean baseball magnet. What he did best was swing the bat. That year he racked up 105 RBIs (14 short of the PCL lead) and 26 HRs. The following year he made the parent team out of spring training and stayed up with the Twins for six seasons.

After that, he went to Toronto for a season, then Milwaukee. It was in 2006, with the Brew Crew, that Koskie took an awkward backwards fall trying to field an infield pop-up. He lost his balance and fell heavily on the back of his neck. He didn’t black out. As it later turns out, though, he did give himself a concussion. In the two years that followed, he suffered from after-effects that included vertigo, nausea, blurred vision, headaches, and memory loss. He couldn’t play baseball, obviously, and there were times he couldn’t even play with his kids.

Anyone who’s suffered a whiplash injury, say from an automobile accident, knows it can take years to recover. And some never do. It’s an “invisible” injury—elusive to diagnose for doctors, difficult to appreciate for the unaffected and maddeningly frustrating for the sufferer. In fact, post-concussion syndrome, as the injury is called, is not recognized by the military as a “physical injury” and thus is not eligible for the Purple Heart medal. Koskie has become an active voice in creating greater awareness and understanding of post-concussion syndrome, wryly labeling his own gauntlet run, “If I Only Had a Cast.”

So when I read that one-liner in the transaction pages, my heart skipped a beat. On the same day, Koskie made the roster of Team Canada for the World Baseball Classic. In an exhibition game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Koskie was in the starting lineup as the DH. And how did he fare in his first game after two years of absence?

It’s only one game. Koskie’s subsequent appearances have been as a pinch hitter, inserted partway into the game. Four at-bats over three exhibition games mean little when compared against a full season of potentially several hundred trips to the plate. Nonetheless, it’s a start.  .  .Bye for now!

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