Badanes Is 'Mound' and Determined

Can a parent shed tears of joy and threaten a spanking for the same thing?

"I was 4 or 5," C.W. Post pitcher Zach Badanes remembers. "My mom was busy with something, and all of a sudden I yelled, 'Look Ma, I got it!' She turned around and I had a giant goose by the neck. I dragged it around a little bit."

Don't blame Badanes' mom, Bridget, if she had mixed emotions. He was born with clubbed feet, his parents were told he'd never run or walk and he endured a pair of reconstructive surgeries during his first year of life.

As it turns out, it was Badanes who determined what he would and wouldn't do.

"I never played T-ball," Badanes says. "I refused to hit off a T. I was already past that."

Despite the physical ailments Badanes proved that he indeed was gifted beyond his years. He went on to earn All-County and All-Conference honors at Syosset High School, but his college choice came with a price. Despite hitting .380 during his career with the Braves, Post wanted him to focus on pitching.  

"Other schools wanted me to pitch and play infield, but Post made the best scholarship offer," Badanes explains.

It was tough for Badanes (who for full disclosure headed to the batting cage after he was done with this interview, just for fun). But focusing on the mound gives him a chance to reach the magical number, "90," on the radar gun. He has topped out at 89, and went 3-2 starting at Post as a freshman. He still kicks himself for pitching with strep throat his last game of the season and subsequently ballooning his ERA to 4.08.

"I'm trying to build up my arm strength, lots of long toss, lots of stretching," Badanes says. "You want to get stronger, but they don't want your upper body to get tight and lose that whip in your arm. It's always, 'Get stronger, but don't get too strong.'"

The same can't be said of his lower body: Continued problems required more surgery as a high school freshman, he still feels pain regularly, and recently he had to get a Cortizone shot. But he deals with it, just the way he dealt with the team bus ride to South Carolina, where the only thing they threw were snowballs before heading back home. It's all worth it.

"I'd be miserable if I couldn't play baseball," Badanes says.

His successful first year on the mound at Post was matched with a 3.93 GPA and thoughts about a career as a veterinarian. He's worked at Woodbury Road Veterinary Hospital, and maybe the animals can sense that Badanes understands what it's like to go through struggles to get better.

"I've always loved animals," Badanes says (although that goose might disagree). "Sometimes I'll sit in on surgeries, and the animals seem to like me. Even the mean ones."