For Ryan Adams, after Katrina there are no obstacles

SARASOTA, Fla. — Ryan Adams is no stranger to overcoming obstacles in his baseball career.

After suffering a severe injury, the Baltimore Orioles’ infielder sustained a sports hernia at the end of last season and underwent surgery one week after the year was over.

“The ab muscles connect to the pelvis bone, [that] muscle ripped off the bone,” said Adams. “I played through it for a little while, I got an MRI, and they actually said it was torn.”

Fortunately, the recovery process went without complications.

“For the first few months [of off-season] I was recovering,” said Adams. “Once I started getting healthy again I started hitting it pretty hard.”

Although Adams will not yet consider himself as 100 per cent healthy, he does attest to be in great shape after a busy, hard-working off-season.

“I’m in the best shape I’ve been in probably since I started playing ball,” he said.

Adams is working hard to impress during spring training for a permanent position on the major league roster.

Last year, he had 89 big league AB’s in 29 games, with a .281 average, plus .333 OBP/.326 SLG/ .659 OPS. Thus far in 2012 Spring Training, he has had just 11 AB’s in 6 games, with a .091 batting average.

Prior to being drafted, Adams faced one of his greatest hurdles as he and his family were among those hit by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

“I knew a lot of people that lost a lot of stuff … their houses were flooded out, they lost everything,” said Adams. “[My] teammates … not that it’s a big deal in the scheme of things, lost all their baseball stuff, their clothes, they didn’t have anything.”

Adams’ family evacuated the city early enough and their household was not entirely damaged as it sits above sea level. It was his potential baseball career that was taking the hit.

“We didn’t get to practice as much as we had in the past,” he said. “Scouts … couldn’t come through because … there was only a certain number of flights that could come in.

So it was a weird time because a lot of guys couldn’t get in and see me, so that was kind of disappointing. And then I got hurt on top of that.”

Despite Katrina, Adams was not discouraged and his dream of playing professional baseball was kept alive.

“Luckily it all worked out,” said Adams. “I did well the summer before in front of lots of scouts … so I think that’s what helped me get drafted. Then we had some pre-draft workouts and the Orioles were one of them and it all worked out.”

About this article

By: Renata Gabriella Kuzma
Posted: Mar 26 2012 12:13 pm
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Filed under: 2012 Spring Training Baseball Sports
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