I remember seeing Luke Hagerty’s name pop up on Twitter a few weeks ago. Apparently he was throwing almost 100mph as a 37-year-old. I didn’t think much of it and didn’t know who he was exactly. That was until ESPN’s Jeff Passan published a feature story on Hagerty Friday, in which he detailed a movie script come to life.
See, some Cubs fans might know the name because Luke Hagerty was a first round pick by the team in 2002. Now, 17 years later and 12 years since he last pitched professionally, Hagerty is attempting a come back and he’s doing it with the Cubs.
In 2002, Luke Hagerty was a first-round pick of the Cubs.
In 2007, the yips chased him out of organized baseball.
In 2019, he's throwing 99 mph.
Baseball has a history of amazing comebacks. At 37 years old, Luke Hagerty could be the best. Story at ESPN: https://t.co/Rn288Ln08R
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 1, 2019
If you’re into feel-good stories, you definitely have to read Passan’s article and if you’re a Cubs fan this is definitely the come back story you should be rooting for.
Hagerty had Tommy John surgery that forced him to miss 2003 and most of the 2004 season. When he came back, Hagerty couldn’t throw as hard and soon after he couldn’t find the strike zone. The yips, or whatever you want to call it, hit him hard. After playing in independent ball, Hagerty was out of the game after 2007.
In 2005, the yips consumed him. Via ESPN.
That year, Hagerty threw 6⅔ innings. He walked 30, allowed 14 hits, threw nine wild pitches and hit four batters. He turned himself into a test subject to conquer it. Coaches set up targets behind Hagerty’s back, and he whirled 180 degrees and tried to hit them. They wanted to detach his thoughts from learned physical behaviors. That didn’t work. Neither did the conversations with sports psychologists or private throwing sessions away from teammates in batting cages or anything else. One time, when he was starting a game, Hagerty threw two warm-up pitches and then waved off the catcher. “I’m good,” he said. “I’m ready.” His left hand was shaking. He was scared to throw any more warm-ups.
The next season was no better. With Class A Daytona, Hagerty threw three innings and walked nine batters. The Cubs stuck with him anyway. There would be days, Reed says, when the wildness would abate. The misses wouldn’t miss by as much. Hagerty would leave throwing sessions upbeat. This is it. This is the turning point. This is where the work pays off. And then he would be so wild pregame he worried he was going to hit a hot dog vendor with a ball.
…
He remembers Oneri Fleita, then the Cubs’ farm director, telling Hagerty sometime around 2006 that when he beats the yips, Fleita simply wants to be in the movie about it.
“You feel so bad for people like that,” Fleita says now. “Your heart bleeds when someone is dealing with that. Anything to motivate him. Anything to make him feel like he can see that light.
“Because, man. Who has ever come back from it?”
Hagerty recently attended a workout with several scouts in attendance. And guess what, he’s on his way to beating the yips and the Cubs are giving him that chance.
All he really wanted was for the Cubs to call and tell him he passed his physical. Let’s not forget: The graft holding together his left elbow is 15 years old. Combine that with a fastball topping out at 99 mph, and his medicals weren’t exactly a forgone conclusion. The polar vortex didn’t help, either, delaying the results of the physical for two days, making him wait until Friday afternoon, when the word finally came: He was officially a Cub again, signing a non-guaranteed minor-league deal. And he already had his first goal in mind.
Welcome back Luke Hagerty!
Read the entire story here. It’s worth your time.
