2005

he was outfitted with his first prosthetic and the upcoming operation will ready him for another, hopefully, permanent one, Fortenberry said. Fortenberry is scheduled to pitch for his second· win on the season today (Thursday) when the Warriors travel to Gulf Coast Community College.

him.

Shortly, after he suffered the life and career-threatening injury last January in an intra-squad game Fortenberry vowed to return to baseball and has never admitted to hav– ing any doubts that he would. But, even though he never doubted he would pitch again, Fortenberry -

"He's a starling pitcher now. Who would have ever thought it? I think he did bet– ter than most people thought he would." Major League Baseball scout and Walnut Grove resi– dent Art Gardner, who was in

attendance on Saturday, for one, thought ''A ~ter the first Fortenberry's return was unlikely. two or three pitches it all kind of fell into

said he didn't expect things to go as well as they did on Saturday. ly," he said, "I am very sur- prised I did as "Truthful-

Gardner said he called the MLB

•

Place.''

--John Fortenberry

office

and

asked if any– one had ever

well as I did, but after the first two or three pitches it all kind of fell into place." Up until about two weeks before the season, ECCC coach Jake Yarborough had told Fortenberry he would be us~d as a relief pitcher this season, at least in the beginning. But, about two weeks ago, Fortenberry said Yarborough told him he was going to be in the starting rotation. "That made me feel good," Fortenberry said. "It was about the third or fourth inning before I realized how lucky I was to be pitching again." Fortenberry's mother, Dawn, hid her emotions well, hoping not to put any more pressure on her son than she figured he was already feeling. '"'John has just been going with the flow," she said. "We were really, really proud of

returned to pitch after losing an eye and a subsequent search of the records produced no similar occurrences where sight was involved. Fortenberry said he will have another operation at the end of the season and then he will have a new prosthetic eye made. He currently does not have a prosthetic and he wears a patch at all times. Additional surgery became a necessity last summer after