Vince Velasquez Finds the Fun in Adversity
I am sitting on the team bus, looking out at all the green leaves blowing in the gentle breeze made by the bus zipping down the highway. I’m surrounded by a bunch of 18-year-old kids who are all a little nervous, you can tell by the blank looks on their faces. We’re all out on our own for the first time and have no idea what to expect. I sit there in my thoughts gripping the seams of a baseball. We pull up to the stadium, which is surrounded by green trees and open land. I think to myself, This is weird, back in Cali, you would never see this. All the stadiums back home are in the middle of a huge city and even the minor league games sell out. Out here there’s nothing around, just you and the ballpark. I walk in and immediately smell the BBQ from the food vendors preparing for the few thousand fans that are going to attend. I sit at my immensely small locker, barely big enough to fit cleats, a glove, and uniforms and my thoughts are, This is going to suck and be challenging, but this is what I chose to do. And my eyes are on the end-prize, making it to the big leagues. Nothing is going to stop me.
That is how Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Vince Velasquez remembers his first day as a professional. He was just 18-years-old then, a kid looking to make a name for himself and make it to the majors. He knew that the path was going to be grueling and test his determination because baseball is a game of failure: good hitters are only successful three out of every ten at bats; a good pitcher wins just over half his games. It is mentally brutal on the players. Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90% mental the other half is physical.”
Velasquez says he actually finds that all the failue baseball throws at you is the reason it’s so much fun. “The best part for me is facing all the adversity, you can get beat up one start, go back out there the next start and be great, thats the fun part, making adjustments.”
We’re talking at a family friend’s house in Southern California where the 6’3” pitcher works out in the offseason. His eyes light up with excitement when he talks about the game and the challenges of making it to the big leagues.
One of the first challenges he faced after getting to the majors was being traded. Some players take being traded personally. Velasquez took it an opportunity. “Getting traded was a fun experience, especially going from the American League to the National League,” he says. “You get to face completely new teams and have the opportunity to bat every game. Being in the NL definitely changes your mentality because you not only have to worry about pitching, but also doing your job at the plate. There’s also a downside to the NL, which is way more conditioning, which isn’t too fun. But at the end of the day, it helps with your durability and flexibility which helps you stay healthy over the course of a season, which is what I’m getting paid to do.”
In the National League, pitchers must be more conditioned because they have to bat and run the bases while in the American League, they only have to pitch. There are some pitchers who prefer to play in the National League because they like to hit. Velasquez says he quickly got used to the rhythms of the NL and was thrown off the first time he pitched back in the American League. “After going a whole season being in the NL, going back to pitching in an AL park sort of threw me off,” he recalls while taking a drink of his red, post-workout shake and placing his designer sunglasses on a table along along with the snapback hat he’s been wearing. “There was a game this past year in Detroit where we played over there and since it was in Detroit I wasn’t able to bat, and that kind of thew off my rhythm. At the end of the day my mentality is on pitching, being focused for all nine innings and getting people out. So as long as I have a job I am happy.
”My eyes are on the end-prize, making it to the big leagues. Nothing is going to stop me.
The Houston Astros drafted Velasquez out of Garey High School in Pomona with the second round pick of the 2010 MLB draft. The Astros had switched from the National League to the American League after the 2013 season. Velasquez made his Astro’s debut in 2015 in the American League. Though he had a fast track to the big leagues, one of the most biggest challenges Velasquez faced came shortly after he was drafted — the decison to undergo “Tommy John” surgery. The surgery is named for legendary pitcher Tommy John, who ranks seventh all-time among left-handed pitchers for career victories. John was a pioneer of the procedure to repair damage to the throwing-arm that is suffered by many pitchers. John won more than half of his 288 career victories after the surgery.
“Man that was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to deal with,” says Velazquez. “I was 18 when it happened, and the doctors gave me two choices: have the surgery, or take some time off and get some sort of injection to try and heal the tendon with a risk that I would have to have surgery anyways. That was a huge decision for an 18-year-old to make, but at that time, the success rate of the surgery was around 95 percent, so I decided to go that route.”
Velazquez says the post-surgery rehab was the hardest part. “I almost gave up because it hurt so much,” he recalls, “because if you don’t do things right, scar tissue builds up and then you have to have more surgery. I was 18, I didn’t want to put the rehab work in. I never put any work in before that, I would just go out there and pitch.”
I was 18, I didn’t want to put the rehab work in. I never put any work in before that, I would just go out there and pitch.
After several conversations with coaches who had gone through the process, Velasquez says he gained the confidence he needed to fight back from the surgery. “I made sure to focus on getting my shoulder stronger as part of my rehab, because a lot of guys compensate for their elbow and put more stress on their shoulder and end up having shoulder problems. Ever since then, I haven’t had any problems and I make sure to get all my work done so I don’t have another injury, because being healthy gets you paid.”
Going to the Astros wasn’t the only option Velasquez had coming out of high school. By his junior year, he had already committed to playing at Cal State Fullerton. The decision to go pro instead wasn’t difficult. “For me it was an easy decision, because I knew what I wanted to do and that was play major league baseball. There were times in high school my dad pushed me so hard I wanted to stop, but looking back, him being so tough on me is what got me here.”
Every start is a chance to prove yourself, and you have to constantly make adjustments to get better. That’s the fun part of the game for me.
Velazquez says baseball has been his passion since he was a toddler and he started playing the game as soon as he could pick up a bat. When he was a boy, he and his father would travel to baseball conventions together to learn more about the game. They even met Barry Bonds at one of the conventions. And while signing a professional contract to play baseball instead of going to college sounds like every kid’s dream, Velasquez says that being out on your own at such a young age isn’t easy. “You’re not with mommy and daddy anymore and you’re in a whole different state than where you grew up,” he says, “but it was a fun experience. It was fun knowing that if I worked hard enough I would one day reach my goal of getting to the majors.”
Since his major-league debut in 2015, Velasquez has earned a 9–7 record with a 4.12 earned run average. His stats are not eye popping, but he has electric stuff — his fastball is in the upper 90’s m.p.h. When he was drafted, Baseball America wrote of Velazquez, “He might have the highest ceiling of all the Houston pitching prospects.”
Now that he’s in the majors pursuing his lifelong passion, Velazquez has just one concern — that some of the recent rule changes are taking the fun out of the sport. “There’s no running over the catcher, managers going out there and arguing, no more take out slides at second… they are taking the passion out of it. The only fun thing left is the adversity you face day in and day out. Every start is a chance to prove yourself, and you have to constantly make adjustments to get better. That’s the fun part of the game for me.”
