Chapter 1

It was purely an instinctive reaction on his part with his left hand coming up to protect his head from the baseball that was heading at it. He had thrown a fastball at a speed of ninety-six miles per hour and it was coming back to him at a speed of over one hundred miles an hour. He was in an awkward unbalanced position because of his follow-through in having pitched the ball. He put his ungloved hand up to deflect this ball and to protect himself. That it did but the pain from the ball hitting his hand shot through him causing him to collapse to the ground.

The trainer and the catcher along with other teammates ran to him lying on the grass. The trainer said that x-rays would be necessary to see if any bones were broken.

With the pain subsiding only slightly, Ted Jansen, or TJ as he was known, held his hand as he was helped up by his teammates and walked off the field heading to the dugout. The baseball fans in attendance gave him a round of applause. He didn’t want to leave the game since he had a two-hit shutout going with his team having a three-run lead but he had no choice.

Later he learned that he received credit for the win as the relievers did their job and held the other team scoreless. That resulted in Ted having a sixteen and four won-loss record for the season.

X-rays showed there were no broken bones. Even though the ice was immediately applied to the hand it became markedly swollen. TJ was placed on the injured reserve list where he remained for the balance of the season.

The orthopedic specialist who examined Ted said it could be up to a year before the hand would heal itself and the swelling would go down. He suggested after a few days that Ted soak the hand in the whirlpool and let time do its thing as to the healing. There was no immediate procedure or cure for this injury other than taking some anti-inflammatory medicine.

Ted did what he was told and over time the swelling did go down to where his left hand looked like his right hand. While the hand looked normal, that was not the way it felt to Ted. He could still sense that there still was some swelling which prevented him from having his normal “feel” of the baseball. Because of that lack of feeling, he lost his pinpoint control of where the ball was going if he threw the ball at his normal pitching speed.

If he slowed down the speed of his throw, he had better control. The problem was that a major league baseball pitcher whose fastball has a speed of eighty-five miles per hour and a slider or a curveball with a speed considerably less than that wasn’t going to be a pitcher on any major league baseball team. Ted had to face it that his fifteen minutes of fame as a major league baseball pitcher had come to an end.

Ted Jansen was drafted in the first round of the MLB draft. He would have been drafted years earlier if he hadn’t said he was going to get his college degree before he would play major league baseball. He had promised his parents that he would be the first one in the family to get a college degree. Six-foot-four-inch left-handed baseball pitchers who have a fastball that was clocked at ninety-seven miles per hour and a wicked slider were in high demand.

During the following year’s spring practice, Ted discusses his present physical situation with the coach and the general manager of his major league team. They told him just to continue to rehab and to let them know when he thought his condition had improved. They would then give him a stint with their triple-A club to confirm his recovery.

Ted did the rehabbing but halfway into the regular season he informed the team’s management that there was only minimal improvement and he was going to officially retire effective at the end of the year when his present contract expired. The medical consensus he said was that the injury caused early arthritis and that his hand would always feel swollen to him.

They thanked him for his candor and wished him well. If Ted wanted to coach in the minor leagues they said to let them know and they would find a spot for him. Ted told them being here in the major league had spoiled him and he had no desire to drop down to the minor leagues. If there was a spot in the radio or television booth, which there presently wasn’t, that could be something he would consider doing.

Ted had been in the “big show” for just short of nine years before he was injured. He received a substantial signing bonus and initially was assigned to their triple-A team. He was with this minor league team for two months before he was called up to the home team. His pitching performance as measured by his won-loss record and earned run average resulted in significant increases in his salary in the following seasons. He was making in the eight figures before he was injured. He would get his full pay for this season and any medical bills would be paid but that was the extent of any compensation he would receive for being injured.

He had been raised in tough economic times for his family and was taught to be a saver which he applied to the salary he received. Because of that upbringing and after he paid his taxes, over the years he amassed a substantial investment account by contributing nearly eighty percent of this after-tax amount into his investment account. Those funds along with money from endorsements and the new SUV he received for doing an auto commercial were some of the additional benefits he received during the year.

Having these significant savings now meant he could live a very comfortable lifestyle for the remainder of his life without ever having to work. While he had invested conservatively in stocks and long-term municipal bonds, it was also a rising stock market that increased the value of his investment account to put him in this enviable financial position at a relatively young age.

What he was going to do outside of baseball was on his mind along with where he was going to do it. He gave considerable thought to what the future held for him. He was raised in the mid-west and was not a fan of the snow and the cold winters which occurred there. He also didn’t appreciate the State income taxes he was required to pay. Because of no state income taxes and warm weather, it boiled down to either Texas or Florida as to where he would choose to live. He was familiar somewhat with certain areas of those states because of playing baseball in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Tampa-St. Pete and Miami areas.

Having access to the gulf for boating enjoyment was the overriding factor that had him make his first choice of where to live which was the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. He knew many celebrities and sports figures lived in Florida. He had done quite a bit of surfing the net researching those areas in deciding what he wanted in the way of housing. Having this knowledge and making a decision, he listed his condo with a realtor, packed up his SUV, and headed for Florida.