California Pitcher Eagle an Unordinary Talent

ANTIOCH, Calif. – The sun shines brightly on a perfectly warm spring Thursday afternoon at Deer Valley High School’s baseball field in Northern California.

 

Junior right-hand pitcher Josh Eagle soaks it all in, shagging balls, taking grounders, busting chops with teammates.

“He’s quiet most of the time but he’s a pretty big jokester,” senior first baseman Dante Redhead said.

Said senior pitcher and outfielder Austin Wiggins: “We give it to him pretty good but he can always dish it right back.”

 

Eagle can definitely dish it on the mound.

 

The 5-foot-11, 170-pounder seemingly has a rubber arm, what with 21 appearances in Deer Valley’s first 25 games including both days of the Wolverines’ 6-5 North Coast Section 11-inning first-round playoff win at Irvington (Fremont) that was suspended May 18 because of darkness.

 

The big question on everyone’s mind on this day is does Eagle have enough juice to pitch in the Division I quarterfinal game at heavily favored Monte Vista against one of the state’s top hurlers Christian Jones?

 

Even his biggest backer, head coach Dennis Luquet had wondered out loud if Eagle had run out of steam.

 

When asked if he’d be strong enough to pitch for the third time in four days against the second-seeded Mustangs, Eagle nodded firmly.

 

“Oh yeah,” he said. “I’ll be ready.”

 

Eagle even smirked as if he knew something no one else did.  

 

Perhaps he was just extra confident considering he was three innings pitched and a victory shy of setting school single-season records.

 

Maybe he recalled that nine-day span near spring break when he pitched five times and 21.2 innings and picked up two wins and a save.

 

Or maybe, just maybe, Eagle was just amused – grateful even – that everyone was so worried about his arm and not his leg.  

 

That darned left leg.

 

The same one that was short and turned inward at birth, similar to clubfoot, and required five major surgeries and countless painful and sleepless nights.

 

The one that gives him a slight permanent limp when he walks and a noticeable constant gallop when he runs.

 

The one that prohibits his front foot to point forward when he pitches, instead forcing him to plop his toes toward third base and not home plate.

 

The same left leg, that at age 10, some doctors advised to have amputated below the knee.

 

“I try not to think about it or talk about it much,” said the soft-spoken standout about the birth defect. “At the same time, it’s made me the person I am today.”

 

And the pitcher he is as well.

 

In fact, while his right leg does the driving off the mound, it’s the left that has pushed him every cockeyed step of the way.

 

It’s spurred his passion to succeed and to prove countless naysayers wrong.

 

It’s helped build a savings account of steel rod resolve to draw upon in every guns-to-the-head, bases loaded-nobody-out, 3-0 count situations.

 

“I think he has an edge on the mound,” Luquet said. “He’s heard his whole life that he can’t be very good because he has a bad leg, he has a bad foot, blah, blah, blah. They’ve always tried to find a reason why he can’t be successful. He tries to show people he can do this.”

 

Said his dad and Deer Valley assistant coach Corey Eagle: “I don’t know if he’d be as good a pitcher if he didn’t have the problem. I think it motivates and drives him to be good. He gets a little angry on the mound.”

 

And every time his son takes the hill, Corey, a strong blue collar sort, an electrician by trade and former Division II All American infielder at Sonoma State, gets a little tender.

 

Over the last two decades – Josh turns 17 next week - he and wife Keri have felt every layer of their son’s tendon pulls, ligament tears and bone breaks.

 

That’s why every pitch – even those in the dirt or to the backstop – are perfect knee-high strikes on the inside corner.

 

“Honestly, every time he takes the mound it’s amazing to me,” Corey said. “I mean, it’s really amazing.”

 

In the beginning

 

Josh was two weeks premature and the Eagles’ first born – they now have younger son Alex, 13, and daughter Jordan, 10.

 

Even though this was their first, Corey knew something was wrong even before the doctor muttered “we have a problem.”

 

“His left leg was short and his foot was pointed inward,” Corey said. “They stretched it out and it came right back. They stretched it out again, and it came right back again.

 

“Other than that he was a healthy baby boy and we were grateful for that.”

 

Attempts to constantly cast the foot – once every three days – were unsuccessful the first two years of life. “The cast would loosen and then just slide off,” Corey said.

 

So, at age 2, Josh had his first surgery, which released his Achilles tendon to help straighten the leg. Surgeons, however, discovered the ankle was fused to his foot and an inner foot muscle wasn’t even present.

 

A routine hour surgery took closer to three.

 

“That was fairly traumatic,” Corey said.

 

The good news was that Josh received a half brace and he began to learn how to walk for the first time. He wore the brace until he was 9.

 

“He was a little stiff but at least he could get up and become mobile,” Corey said.

 

It was only then that dad considered his son might be traditionally athletic.

 

“Honestly, I just wanted him to be a normal little kid and have a normal little kid life,” Corey said.

 

The two began engaging in catch when Josh was 3. Like pops, he was a natural hitter, too. Corey was hesitant to put his boy in youth leagues with the faster boys, but because Josh could whack it deep, it gave him time to run the bases.

 

All appealed to Josh, but it wasn’t until he hit the mound at age 7 when he truly fell in love with the game.

 

“I liked it right away because you got to be involved in every play,” Josh said. “You weren’t just sitting around.”

 

He made a Pony League All-Star team at age 8 and he primarily pitched.

 

“The main thing I pushed was him to throw strikes,” Corey said.

 

Josh said kids knew he was different but never recalled being made fun of. Dad, however, remembered one instance and it changed Josh’s life forever.

 

Frankenstein foot

 

Josh’s good leg began to sprout and actually outgrew his left at age 9. To compensate, he wore a specially made shoe with a lift and giant sole.

 

The kids at school made fun of it and Josh came home crying. It was the first and last time, according to dad.

 

“They were calling him Frankenstein foot and monster foot, stuff like that,” Corey said. “He was never going to wear that shoe again.”

 

That inspired Keri to get in touch with the Shriner’s Hospital, the renowned international health care system given to special needs kids with, among other needs, rare orthopedic conditions.

 

Out of more than 100 kids screened, Josh was one of three selected. Then, in a college-room setting, he was diagnosed at once by approximately 30 doctors, who were to come up with a consensus for treatment.

 

A handful recommended amputation – “that was no option,” Corey said - but the majority agreed on a complex and extremely painful lizarov technique which involved breaking the tibia and fibula bones and installing a lizarov apparatus.

 

The device is connected to pins attached to the bone and worn on the outside of the leg.

 

“Some of the doctors wanted to wait until he was 16 or 17 because they didn’t know if he could handle the pain at that age,” Corey said. “The consensus, though, was to do it right away.”

 

The Eagles agreed, though just as his son went in for anesthesia, Corey changed his mind.

 

“I tried to stop them,” he said. “They were pushing the cart in and I was pulling it back to stop. I couldn’t go through with it.”

 

Keri, however, soothed her husband and convinced him it was for the best. An hour later, after walking around the Shriner’s Hospital in Sacramento, Corey had calmed and found peace.

 

But when the four-hour surgery, took nine, both parents were basket cases.

 

“Next to my father dying, it was the worst day of my life,” Corey said.

 

It was no day at the ball park for Josh either.

 

“I just remember it being really, really painful,” he said. “To the point I needed morphine.”

 

Though the surgery was a success, the pain wasn’t going away.  

 

Far from it.

 

Turning the screws

 

Over the next six months, to pull the bone apart and help it regenerate, screws on the lizarov had to be rotated every night.

 

But just before the device was to be removed, there was another setback of the most excruciating variety.

 

At lunch time at school, the kids wanted to race Josh on his crutches. A born competitor, Josh took on all comers but in one of the last races of the day his crutch slipped in a mud puddle and cracked his left femur, the thigh bone — the longest and largest in the human body.

 

The Eagles were scheduled to take Josh to Shriner’s the following day but Josh woke up that night screaming in pain.

 

“I tried to pick him up every way possible but every way he screamed,” Corey said. “I kept saying ‘we can do this Josh, we can do it,’ but as brave and strong as he was he still screamed.”

 

If those sounds weren’t haunting or memorable enough, Corey still remembers the reaction of the X-Ray technician at Shriner’s, a 90-minute drive from Antioch.

 

“Oooooo,” Corey said mimicking the tech. “The bone was split in half. They rushed him back for another 3-4 hour surgery.”

 

Josh remained in the hospital for three weeks and then confined to a body cast from the waist down for months. Remember, the Eagles had two younger children to attend as well.

 

“We flip-flopped every day going to the hospital, going to work, going home,” Corey said. “It was a very tough time.”

 

But eventually, they got through it. Eventually, Josh’s leg straightened though his foot remained contorted because of the missing muscle and fused bones. And eventually, Josh’s life became more normal.

 

Best of all, it included baseball.

 

Breaking molds, climbing ranks

 

Josh had to sit out a year and after a back-to-the-basics season in Antioch Babe Ruth, he began to emerge as one of the area’s top pitchers as a 14-year-old.

 

He threw a no-hitter that season but was not selected to the All-Star team.

 

Whether it was the competitive genes of his dad or all time laid up from surgeries, Josh wasn’t satisfied with being an average player.

 

He was born unordinary and strived to be an unordinary talent.

 

“He knew what he needed to do to be better,” Corey said. “He hit the weights. He threw more bullpens. He ran.”

 

Whatever push he needed dad was there. Just like when he cradled his pained, broken son, Corey, a former junior college assistant coach, told him he could do it. He could make it. He could break the mold.

 

“He’s pretty much helped me every step of the way,” Josh said. “I can’t even describe how much I appreciate it.”

 

His dad, though, knew high school would be a whole new level.

 

It was 18 months before Corey even talked to Luquet, who has coached high school in three different decades and led Deer Valley to the NCS playoffs all but three varsity seasons since the school opened in 1996.

 

The Wolverines won the title in 2003.  

 

“I just stayed away for the first couple seasons and let Josh make his own path,” Corey said.

 

Like most, Luquet sensed something wasn’t right with Josh at first. He noted the live arm, but also the limp and foot plant. Once informed of Josh’s conditions, he was impressed, intrigued but also wary.

 

“I just wasn’t sold on the idea of him on varsity,” Luquet said. “I worried about his movement and people bunting on him.”

 

After a season on the junior varsity, Josh’s movement on the mound had improved drastically but more important to Luquet was the movement of his pitches.

 

The longtime coach found that out during bunting drills when pitchers are asked to groove pitches while coaches bunt.

 

But Luquet kept fouling off or missing pitches.

 

“He really slings the ball and it just has the natural movement that is hard to pick up,” Luquet said. “I realized then this kid has some potential.”

 

In a three-team scrimmage just before the 2008 season in Fresno, Luquet started Josh, then a sophomore, against Bullard High. He retired the side in order in the first and Luquet hasn’t lost faith in him since.

 

To that point, Corey hadn’t spoken a word to Luquet.

 

Josh had indeed earned his spot on his own and Corey, for the first time, was overwhelmed with emotion.

 

“I guess that was the first time I just reflected on it all, all he had fought through, all that he battled,” Corey said. “I just walked around the facility and had some quiet moments. It was a good day.”

 

One of many to come.

 

Special needs to special stuff

 

Josh was one of the bright spots of an otherwise average 2008 season for Luquet, whose team went 12-12.

 

He went 3-2 with team bests in saves (three), innings (63.2), ERA (2.64) and strikeouts (62) with just 21 walks.

 

His success might have surprised some but for those who batted against him in youth leagues, like teammate Jason Bodin, it was just more of the same.

 

“He’s always had great mechanics and a really good curve ball,” he said. “I remember one (youth game) he struck me out three times. I could foul the fastball off, but that curve ball just buckles your knees.”

 

He’s buckled more knees and rocked the senses this season with even a better fastball (clocked in the low to mid 80s), a more wicked curve ball – he also throws a splitter and change-up – and greater command.

 

His endurance and strength have been the most eye-opening traits of surprising season for both he and the Wolverines.

 

It was topped off Friday, when he pitched the final six innings of the Wolverines 2-1 upset at Monte Vista in eight innings.

 

Josh allowed just one hit and retired the last 15 batters he faced to outduel the far flashier Jones, who struck out 14 and whom Luquet said “was probably the best high school pitcher we’ve ever faced. We missed pitches by two feet.”

 

But Josh was, like he’s been all season — rock solid — to win his 10th game against three losses.

 

The win total tied the school mark with Daniel Denham, a first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2001 Major League draft.

 

“That’s pretty good company,” Luquet said. “He’s had a heck of a season.”

 

It finished on Tuesday with a crushing 10-8 loss to league rival Freedom (Oakley), ranked 22nd in the state by MaxPreps. The Wolverines squandered a 7-0 lead when Freedom scored nine unearned runs in the sixth inning.

 

Josh pitched a scoreless seventh inning and finished with 23 appearances in 27 games. In 89.1 innings, he had 97 strikeouts, 25 walks and allowed just 64 hits while compiling a 1.49 ERA.

 

The Wolverines finished 20-7 and one win shy of a spot in the NCS championship game at the Oakland Coliseum, home of the major league A’s.

 

Josh would have started that game which made Tuesday’s defeat all the more bitter.

 

“That would be the ultimate way to finish the season,” Josh said. “That would have been huge.”

 

As good as it gets

 

Luquet said Josh proved that he’s a big-game pitcher and hopes he’ll get to prove it again as a senior on the biggest stage next season.

 

“He’s been the guy all year who has picked us up,” Luquet said. “They all rally around him. They want him to do well. If you put someone on the mound in the championship game, they would like to see him there.”

 

Said junior catcher Mike Leal, who likely will be the team’s No. 2 starting pitcher next season: “When he’s on the mound, we’re all more confident. He has a certain confidence that spreads to all of us.”

 

So did his fearlessness and toughness, a trademark that reflected a team that figured to finish in the middle of the Bay Valley Athletic League pack.

 

Redhead fought through grade and home troubles to blast a school-record eight home runs, including a three-run blast Tuesday against Freedom.

 

Wiggins has also showed great resilience, fighting back from a stress fracture in his right pitching elbow last year that opened the door for Josh’s starting spot.

 

Wiggins, who entered Tuesday’s game 7-3 with a 2.42 ERA, belted two home runs against Freedom and said watching Josh daily was more than helpful to his comeback season.

 

“He’s such a hard worker and fighter,” Wiggins said. “Most people wouldn’t be able to fight through what he’s had to overcome. It’s definitely inspiring.”

 

It was inspiring enough that the entire Monte Vista squad shook Josh’s hand well after Friday’s bitter defeat. Contra Costa Times reporter Chace Bryson wrote a story about Josh the previous week.

 

His life story is becoming well known.

 

“That was something I’ll never forget,” Josh said about Monte Vista’s gesture. “That was a real classy thing to do.”

 

Luquet, a no-nonsense sort, said it’s easy to root for Josh not because of his leg but because who he is. Then again, like Josh said, his leg is a large part of who he is.

 

“I think (his teammates) appreciate what he’s gone through in his life, but they also appreciate him just as a teammate,” Luquet said. “He picks them up all the time and he’s always positive for them. It’s not just about him. He’s part of this team and he’s just the same as the guys hitting or playing the field.”

   

That should bode well in the future wherever Josh winds up.

 

He wants to play college baseball and beyond, but his quickness off the mound might be exploited.

 

Also, the calf on his left leg can’t be fully developed so strength may be at issue as well as his top-end velocity, which is controlled by where he left foot lands.

 

So, this may be as good as it gets.

 

“He may never get past this point,” Corey said. “This may be the highlight right here at Deer Valley. That’s why I’m enjoying every moment of this.”

 

So is Josh. But when asked what his favorite moment has been thus far, he quickly responded.

 

“It’s not over yet,” he said. “Not by a long shot.”

 

E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com.