The Rocket

Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Sports

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Media Credit: MCT Campus [Click to enlarge]

The distance between New Castle, Pa., and Slippery Rock isn't much more than 10 or 15 miles.

Just jump on East Washington Street in New Castle and follow it up a little way to State Route 108. Go straight for about five miles or so, through the four-way stop and on by the buffalo farm.

Go on a little ways, through the blinker by the Village Inn restaurant.

Stay straight, up and down the hills, until you wind up in a town with little more than a college and a Main Street.

You can't miss it.

But somewhere along the way, somewhere between New Castle and Slippery Rock, somewhere between high school and the future, Mark Tanner did miss it.

He got lost. Really lost, in fact, and found himself on Interstate-71, southbound for the University of Kentucky and a year of humility.

And now, only after elbow surgery and a whole lot of waiting, has Tanner been able to get back to what he-all six feet, two inches and 200 pounds of southpaw-was born to do.

Pitch.

"Last year, I was just mainly trying to stay focused, because I knew I couldn't play, so I just had to keep my head in the game knowing that 2007 would be my year," Tanner, 20, said. "I had to prepare myself to make sure I was ready, and to get myself on the staff."

A YEAR OF WAITING

Tanner, a redshirt sophomore, sat out the entire 2006 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow in January of that year. He was pitching in a summer league when he realized something wasn't quite right, he said.

The surgery, once considered radical, was first performed on Tommy John of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1974 by Dr. Frank Jobe. During the procedure, the surgeon attempts to repair the UCL from a tendon from elsewhere in the body-usually a wrist or hamstring tendon.

Recovery from the surgery usually takes between nine months and a year, with pitchers' recoveries generally taking a bit longer than position players.

Tanner's surgery, performed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Passavant Cranberry, in Cranberry Township, Pa., was what Tanner's mother, Luann, calls "a complete success."

"They basically said that the ligament in his arm was smashed," she said. "When we first heard about him needing surgery, we most definitely thought he was done. We didn't know how it was going to be."

Tanner's father, also named Mark, said the surgeon's reassurance following the surgery was also helpful.

"He told us that there were no complications, which was a relief," the elder Mark Tanner said. "But that, those times, they weren't easy."

Luann said she was worried what not being able to play baseball-something he has done for as long as he or his parents can remember-would do to her son's psyche.

"They told him that he couldn't even throw a ball full speed for a year at least," she said. "And the doctor even said the surgery itself was simple, but recovery was 80 percent mental. It was a boring year last year when there was nothing, no baseball."

Waiting patiently for Tanner's elbow to heal as well was the Rock baseball coaching staff. Head Coach Jeff Messer said that patience was the key to his current No. 3 starter's recovery.

"The tendency is to want to come back too fast, but we told (Tanner and fellow starter Chris Squeglia, who also missed the 2006 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery) to slow down, go through what the doctors were telling them to do, and he did everything he was supposed to do from conditioning to rehab," Messer said. "The big thing with Tommy John is, mentally, being afraid to let it loose."

Rock Pitching Coach Steve Urda said he could, at times, see frustration starting to creep into the mindset of his new lefty.

"Mark knew what kind of pitcher he was, and we knew what kind of pitcher he was, but he wasn't able to go out and prove it," said Urda, who joined the team's coaching staff in 2005. "He knew what he could do, and yet he couldn't go out and show it."

A YEAR OF HUMILITY

But even before Tanner's baseball-less year came a season of frustration and less-than-stellar outings with the University of Kentucky baseball team.

Tanner appeared in just four games, starting one, for the Wildcats in 2005. He pitched only six innings all season, allowing 11 runs, 10 earned, that made up his team-worst 15.0 earned run average.

He transferred to SRU after the season.

But even after the struggles he faced while at Kentucky, Tanner said he's still happy he went through with it.

"I don't think I'd change any of it," said Tanner, who, along with freshman Rich Hocanson, is 4-0 on the season. "I went to Kentucky for a reason, and I didn't not get anything out of it. I learned a lot of stuff about my ability, and from learning that, I've also grown to become a better pitcher.

"The biggest part for me was struggling with the coaching staff because it was a great experience, but we didn't see eye-to-eye. They wanted to change me up, and I was trying to do what I wanted to do."

Tanner's parents, however supportive they were of the initial decision, said they struggled, too.

"It was hard, because he would call us and he would not be happy at all," Luann Tanner said. "Especially in the second half of the year. They tried changing him. They took him for what he did and then tried to change him."

Gary Henderson, Tanner's pitching and associate head coach at Kentucky, said he doesn't recall tweaking Tanner's delivery.

"I certainly don't remember anything like that," said Henderson, who's now in his fourth year with the Wildcats. "If he has any ill feelings toward that, I feel bad about it.

"If he would have stayed here, he would have been one of our better pitchers. The transition is always hard for all kids, but I never felt like he couldn't hack it. I really enjoyed my time with him."

Many players struggle when making the jump from a small high school to NCAA Division I baseball, Henderson said. Tanner's case was no different.

"Any time you bring a high school kid into the South Eastern Conference, there's going to be adjustments that have to be made," Henderson said. "We felt like he was going to be able to come in and help us. Mark was making the adjustment, and we were very pleased with him. We were very disappointed when he left."

Tanner's parents also said his season to forget may not have even been the worst part of the experience. The days leading up to his decision to enroll there were just as dismal.

"It took us four days to sign the contract to send him to Kentucky," Luann Tanner said. "And they couldn't do it-they made me sign it."

THE LONG ROAD HOME

After he made the decision to leave Kentucky, Tanner also had a subsequent question that needed answering: What now?

Tanner said that there was no real choice, that SRU was where he wanted to go, a decision that his father said he was delighted to hear.

"Obviously, we're glad he's closer now," Tanner's father said. "We just weren't sure Coach Messer was going to take him, though. We think the world of him, too."

Messer didn't so much take him as keep his finger on the pulse of Tanner's decision-making process.

"When he made his decision, we told him that if things don't work out, we're always here for you, and we'd love to have you on the rebound, and that's what happened," Messer said.

"I saw him coming up all the way through high school. We were in the picture, and he had a lot of people recruiting him, but it came down to, if he was going to stay home, he was going to come to Slippery Rock. He chose to go to Kentucky."

Urda said Tanner should be satisfied with his immediate success at SRU.

"I'm very pleased with his progress," Urda said. "He's 100 percent healthy, but he still doesn't have all the feel and touch of pitching."

Messer said that that touch will come.

"At the beginning of season, he was only throwing a fastball and a changeup," Messer said. "He's starting to work on his control, but he is starting to throw his breaking ball more. I think he's getting stronger every game."

One person with the unique perspective of knowing and playing with Tanner both before and after his year at Kentucky is Rock right fielder Scott Bender, who also played with Tanner at Neshannock High School in New Castle from 2001 to 2004, where the two won both district and state championships during their senior year.

Bender transferred from Youngstown State University after the 2006 season.

"In high school, and even now, when he's pitching, you know he's going to be throwing strikes, which made it easier on the outfielders," Bender, a redshirt sophomore, said. "He transferred out of Kentucky, and I had some personal issues over at YSU, and I gave Mark a call and it all worked out. He talked to coach, and there we were."

While at Neshannock, Tanner got recruiters' attention, tallying a 14-1 record to go with a 0.91 ERA and 135 strikeouts in 79 innings pitched during his senior year.

Mike Kirkwood, who coached Tanner and Bender at Neshannock, said the way Tanner was able to turn it on before taking the mound was uncanny.

"The thing I liked most is when you gave him the ball, he wanted it," Kirkwood said. "He just had that competitive edge. We'd be lined up in a playoff game, and I used to tell him that I talked to the (opposing team's) coach and would tell him that they couldn't wait to light him up. When he had the ball in hand, he was a totally different person, which was kind of awesome."

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Other than pitching accolades, one other item has seemed to have followed Tanner wherever he has gone. That item is the rumored grandfather-grandson relationship between him and former Pittsburgh Pirates World Series-winning manager Chuck Tanner.

Even the university's player bio page for Tanner lists him as the manager's grandson.

While the two are related (they're fourth cousins) it's not as close as many believe it is.

"That didn't really start up as much as it is now until he got to Kentucky," Mark's father said. "But in high school, when he was doing well and his team was winning, all the newspapers down there would call Chuck and ask him about it.

"He would always say, 'Did he do something good?' And if they said yes, he said yes, too."

Tanner's father also explained that his son's grandfather is named Chuck Tanner, but not the former big league player and coach.

But Tanner's parents agreed that the former manager has been more than obliging.

"When coaches first started calling about Mark, and when Chuck found out about it, he told me to let him talk to them," Luann said, "because we really didn't know what we were getting into. But it's worked out. Chuck has always supported him."

THE NEXT STEP

For Tanner, after a rocky introduction to college baseball, a surgery and a whole lot of waiting, the future is what he's most looking forward to.

"I was worried about if I was still able to do what I do, and whether I would be able to throw as hard as I could before," Tanner said. "Since I've been playing, it hasn't been bothering me that much, so I've been free to do what I want. But I still haven't found my curveball yet."

Urda said the most interesting aspect of having Tanner this season is the prospect of having him continue to improve before the start of the 2008 campaign.

"The nice thing to know is that he'll be back next year," Urda said. "He'll have this season as one that he'll have under his belt for next year. As much as I want to stay in the moment, it's going to be nice to see how he progresses for the rest of the year."

In Tanner's most recent start, against Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference rival Indiana (Pa.), Tanner received the no-decision in the Rock's come-from-behind 9-8 victory.

Tanner pitched four innings, allowing seven runs on six hits while striking out two and walking three.

But as he tries to get the feeling on his curveball and a grasp on life, Tanner continues down the road, unsure of what's next.

So goes life for Mark Tanner, always looking for directions, trying to find the right path and trying not to get lost again in a world in which he's been turned around more than a few times.

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