It didn’t hurt. That’s what Evan Vulgamore remembers about the injury that turned the area’s best high school baseball player into a spectator in what was supposed to be a final season of glory.
There’s a pop. Then a tingling, a sort of deadening feeling that shoots up the arm.
“The first thing you feel is numbness in your pinky and ring finger,” Vulgamore said.
There’s no mistaking what the next feeling means.
“Your arm feels like a noodle,” he said. “It’s not stable at all.”
It was a torn ulnar collateral ligament, meaning Tommy John surgery, turning the months that were supposed to be a sleepy preamble to a senior-year finale for the defending Division III player of the year into a race against time. While the Bow baseball team established itself as a championship contender, Vulgamore and his teammates and coaches held out hope he could make it back by the playoffs. Fielding was impossible, but a return as a hitter was tantalizingly close.
Then came word from the doctor last week. There was too much to risk. He shut him down, ending Vulgamore’s last hurrah as a Falcon before it began.
“I was really optimistic. I was prepared. I got my batting gloves, all my stuff ready for that day,” he said. “For him to say, ‘You know what, you’ve got to slow down, it’s not going to happen,’ … That hurt a lot.”
Vulgamore’s story isn’t over, however. Rather, it’s just beginning. A five-tool catcher, Vulgamore hit line drives hard enough and threw out baserunners easily enough to gain attention from the major leagues and college offers from Division I – including a full scholarship from Quinnipiac University, where he’ll be headed in the fall.
The future is still bright for Vulgamore. All that’s left is clearing a final hurdle from his past.
“There are days where my elbow feels awful. It feels sore to even move it, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ The paranoia (sets in),” he said. “The next day I feel fine again. That’s just the hardest part, is the up and down.”
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Vulgamore had been playing catch with former Yankees prospect and Sanbornton native Jordan Cote at the Concord Sports Center, the development facility in which both honed their head-turning talent. The two fired bullets to each other, Vulgamore keeping up with the pitcher who once dominated at Winnisquam with fastballs topping 90 miles per hour.
“In my opinion, some of the best I’ve thrown the ball,” said Vulgamore, who had just been clocked at 88 mph off a mound. “My arm felt really strong.”
Each player joked about out-throwing the other. On Vulgamore’s turn, he hopped, threw and felt baseball’s most terrifying sensation.
He knew.
“I let one go and feel the pop in my elbow,” he said. “First thing I said was, ‘Dude, I need Tommy John surgery.’ He goes, ‘Nah, you’re fine.’
“I went to throw the other one, probably threw it 30 feet max. And I said, ‘Something’s wrong, man.’ ”
That was in the middle of December. Less than a week later on Dec. 22, he had his UCL rebuilt, and he quickly notified Falcons Coach Ben Forbes of the news.
“I knew from the moment he let me know that that was a possibility that there was a chance we weren’t going to have him at all,” Forbes said. “My biggest concern was, ‘Is he going to be able to play the game that he’s worked so hard to be successful at, that he loves so much?’ ”
Tommy John is different. It’s not a pulled hamstring, a bruised knee or a stiff shoulder. There’s no way to poke and prod the injury, stretch the ailment away or grit your teeth and play through it.
“My body is ultimately turning a tendon into a ligament,” Vulgamore said. “I can’t really rush that.”
It takes time, and that time is weeks and months of nothing. It’s plenty of time for negative thoughts and questions to run through your head.
Is it healing? Shouldn’t something be happening? Why doesn’t this feel better yet?
“The recovery, as hard as it is physically, it’s 10 times harder mentally,” Vulgamore said. “The littlest tweak you get so nervous about. … Any little tweak I feel in my elbow, it feels like ‘Oh my God, I’m going to need it again.’
“On my worst enemy, I don’t wish that they have to go through this.”
One of his best friends, however, did. Former Merrimack Valley and current Hartford pitcher David Drouin, another CSC product, lost all of last season to the surgery, but has recovered to go 3-2 with a 3.06 ERA for the Hawks this year – all while taking phone calls nearly daily from a high school catcher in need of an ally.
“I’ve been using (Drouin) as a crutch,” he said. “He’s probably so annoyed with me about the questions I ask him.”
The former MV ace has always been ready with advice, however.
“The first thing he said was, ‘It’s going to be really hard mentally,’ ” Vulgamore said.
“ ‘Physically, you’re going to do it, but mentally, you’ve got to trust the process.’ ”
Soon, the barriers started to fall. First, Vulgamore was pushing against a wall. Then working with bands, working on strengthening the muscles supporting the throwing motion. There were doctor’s visits every eight weeks, and if there were setbacks, it meant sliding back a week.
Vulgamore didn’t have any. On March 22, exactly four months after the surgery, he was tossing a ball again. Then throwing, first from 45 feet, then 60, climbing to 120. Vulgamore now throws five times a week, 90 throws a day, the final 10 of which come on a line.
It’s what he didn’t have in January and February – tangible proof of the progress being made.
“Right now, it’s about making a comeback,” he said. “It’s not so much, ‘I’m just doing this because they’re telling me.’ Now I’m gearing up.”
It would seem to be a coach’s dream. The Falcons were flying high, hovering near the top of the Division III standings, and the player who hit .600 last year while leading the team in average, home runs, RBI, stolen bases and on-base percentage was begging to take some swings.
For Forbes, though, there was never a thought.
“Anyone would be crazy not to love to have him back,” he said. “But … I guarantee you that he’s not going to injure himself or put his scholarship or his playing future at risk for a few high school games. I refuse to do that.”
Still, as the Falcons evolved into a resilient, hard-nosed bunch led by the pitching of Brendan Winch and Jeff Bell and contributions from newcomers Connor Blandini and Austin Beaudette – Vulgamore’s replacement – the question Forbes got from opposing coach after opposing coach centered on whether they would be adding their biggest bat, one loud enough to draw preseason interest from the Atlanta Braves, in time for the stretch run.
It came down to yet another doctor’s visit last Monday. Vulgamore thought it would be a mere formality. After all, he felt great. He had been throwing. He was hitting batting practice, belting balls over the fence. He crushed Division III pitching last year, and it was looking like that player was back. He certainly felt like he was.
His physician, Dr. Scott Waugh, the physical therapist for the Boston Bruins, didn’t disagree. The elbow did look good. But so did his future. And with a scholarship awaiting, high school baseball – even with a chance to play for a potential D–III title – was over.
“He told me, ‘Evan, look. If you weren’t playing college baseball next year, I would let you play,’ ” Vulgamore said.
“ ‘Taking in what you’ve got coming next, it’s not worth
it.’ ”
Vulgamore told Dr. Waugh about his progress. His more confident swings. His stronger throws.
“He cut me off and made it real clear that that’s not going to happen,” Vulgamore said. “He basically said, ‘If you want to play again and play for more than a year, for more than half a season, then you’ve got to listen to me.’
“That was clear enough where I wasn’t about to argue.”
Vulgamore knew they were right. But the finality still stung. He had been with his teammates throughout the year, but he missed playing with them. He knew they could use another bat in June. And every step of the way, he thought he would provide it.
“I kind of thought I was going to be the superhuman kid who was going to set the record for coming back,” he said. “But you can’t do that. … Coach Forbes and I talked earlier, he said, ‘Evan, I think you wanted to come back more than anybody else wanted you to come back.’ And he’s right. I really thought I was going to come back, and he did too.”
Talk to Vulgamore about the spring, and there’s a somber note to his tone. Talk to him about the summer, the fall or next year, however, and the voice lifts.
That’s the baseball that’s yet to be played, and there’s plenty of it. He’ll hit in live games with the Concord Cannons 18U team in either late July or August, then head off to Quinnipiac, where he’ll likely return to the field for fall ball at second base – a shorter, less demanding throw, and the position he played before going behind the plate for his junior year.
In the spring comes the big time, the full NCAA slate with the Bobcats – and Vulgamore will be ready to go.
“I can’t wait to get back there on the field,” he said. “If it comes this summer, great. If I have to wait until the fall, so what. It’s about being healthy again and just trying to be the best baseball player I can be.”
There will be some restraints. Vulgamore will likely swing a lighter bat in the summer, and won’t be able to run the bases, as doctors are concerned about brushing and damaging the graft.
Forbes, however, thinks being on the field will be rewarding enough.
“He’s a ballplayer. He’s not just a kid who plays baseball in the spring,” he said. “He’s focused on his future and trying to get back and doing what the experts tell him he should be doing. Give himself the best chance he has.”
(Drew Bonifant can be reached at 369-3340, abonifant@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @dbonifant)