Scott Radinsky

During my visit to Buffalo to work with Excelsior Sport training I had the opportunity to visit with Scott Radinsky. Scott was a pitcher in the White Sox organization when I first started working for the White Sox. He was left handed pitcher who was drafted in 1986 out of Simi High School in California. He is now the pitching coach for the Triple A Buffalo Bison’s in the Cleveland Indians Organization. It was great to visit with Scott and reminisce about the training we did over twenty years ago. His statement to me was they are telling us that some this stuff is new, but it is things we did in 1987. Scott was really the fist guinea pig in the integrated model of rehab. Scott tore his labrum during instructional league in 1987.He had surgery done by a friend of mine, Dr Alan Strizak in California. We were told that we could do anything we wanted with Scoot because he would ”never make it.” I took that as challenge because I thought this kid had heart and talent. He was just quiet and reserved; in short he did not fit the norm. He did all his initial rehab out at Dr Strizaks clinic. Steve Ogders was helping at the time working with individual players while he was still training for decathlon, so he helped with Scott’s rehab. We had him throwing right-handed about three weeks post op (He was left handed). He continued surfing; I figured the paddling would help him. He then missed the whole1988 while he continued his rehab and progression back to pitching. In 1989 he pitched for our South Bend team and dominated the league, he was throwing four to five miles per hour faster than before surgery. In 1990 he made the major league team and pitched for the White Sox, then the Dodgers, the St Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians and Florida Marlins. He had a very productive major league career, that was interrupted for one year by a bout with cancer.

I have seldom had an athlete work harder than Scott. He completely changed his body after the injury. He transformed himself from a not very fit surfer dude into a lean athlete. Nobody wanted to play med ball with him, because he threw the ball so hard. He is as fit today as when he was pitching. He proudly told me that he still does all the workouts. Scott was one of a group of amazing hard working pitchers from the White Sox organization who went on to have very productive major league careers. The pitchers of today could learn a lot by talking to him and those other pitchers and seeing what they did.

As a post script when I got home that evening I flipped on the tube and saw that Joe Borowski had just gotten his 36th save for the Indians. He was another one of those hard working pitchers who forged a very good career for himself. Good hard directed work does pay off.