Scarlata Makes Strong Return From Surgery

As Joe Scarlata walked off the mound after the fourth inning against Davidson on March 5, 2006, he had nothing to smile about. He had just given up three more runs, bringing Davidon’s total for the game to 10. He had given up 12 hits and walked two batters. He put more runners on base than he got out. If that wasn’t enough, despite a rally by his Columbia baseball teammates to bring their team’s deficit to two, he was the game’s losing pitcher.

“The most difficult part about performing poorly is that you only play once every five games or so,” he said. “If you do poorly, you have to sit around and wait to contribute to the team.”

As bad as the game might have been, there was one bright spot—he was contributing to the team. At the time, Scarlata did not know just how precious this chance was. Scarlata’s journey to Columbia started in Walpole, Mass. Growing up a huge Boston Red Sox fan, he idolized recently retired pitcher Roger Clemens.

“I would characterize him as a bulldog,” he said. “For a kid growing up at that time, he was the best pitcher around.”

Scarlata followed in the footsteps of his fallen idol—Clemens then went on to pitch for the Red Sox-rival New York Yankees—as he himself became a pitcher. Though he was voted to an all-star team as a second baseman in high school, Scarlata realized that pitching was his calling.

“I realized it was what I was best at,” he said. “I was a decent infielder but pitching was something I could see myself excelling at.”

Scarlata’s high school team went 24-2 his senior year, when he was also a captain, and lost in the state championship game. From there, Scarlata entered the best of all possible situations—pitching at Columbia.

“Columbia for me was the best possible school,” he said. “Going to an Ivy League school in the best city in the world. It doesn’t get much better.”

Things continued to improve for Scarlata as he was named a starting pitcher at the start of the season. His first opportunity came in that game at Davidson. After that first rough start, Scarlata nearly recorded his first victory a week later against Army. Pitching in the Yankee complex, he went 5 1/3 innings and gave up just one run. Columbia lost 1-0.

The next weekend against Maine he again went 5 1/3 innings, this time giving up six runs, but just two of them were earned. These performances were enough to earn him a spot in the rotation for Ivy League play.

Starting in the second game of a doubleheader against Penn, Scarlata entered the game with a pain in his throwing elbow. He felt it in the game against Maine but assumed he was fine.

“When you pitch you get a lot of arm soreness,” he said. “I thought it was something I could work through.”

It wasn’t. He took the mound against Penn and gave up five hits and four runs in the first inning. After facing just nine batters he left the game. He soon found out that what he thought was arm soreness was in face a torn ligament in his elbow. He would need Tommy John Surgery.

The surgery is named after former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John, who was the first professional athlete to successfully undergo it. The surgery requires a ligament from one’s elbow to be replaced by a tendon from somewhere else in one’s body.

The recovery time is usually about one year, and there is an endless list of major league pitchers who were at one time promising, only to have the injury and surgery end their careers.

For Scarlata, it was the first time since early childhood that he could remember going four months without being able to touch a baseball.

“Not being able to be on the field with my teammates and contribute makes you feel a little less part of the team,” he said. “You feel you could’ve been helping the team in some way.”

He sat out the rest of his freshman year, watching his teammates limp to a 6-14 league finish. The next year, though he was in the midst of his throwing program, he still sat on the sidelines watching.

Scarlata’s brother, Michael, played for Brown and also suffered a serious arm injury. Scarlata said that his brother helped him through the process.

“We had a lot to relate to each other,” he said. “He helped me through the process, telling me to stay positive with things. He told me it would work out.”

At the 11-month mark, having had no setbacks, Scarlata was finally deemed healthy and given the go ahead to pitch. He then asked head coach Brett Boretti if he could throw an inning and was told it was a possibility.

Columbia was playing Stony Brook that weekend. In the third game of the weekend, the first game of the home doubleheader, Scarlata took the mound to start the sixth inning. Three quick outs later, he walked off.

“It was pretty much the weirdest experience I have ever had on a baseball field,” he said.

Scarlata entered this season back in the starting rotation. He held high expectations for himself but was still a bit wary of his injury.

“At first, you always fear re-injuring it,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine being out again.”

In his first few games, he may have wanted to take those words backs. In starts against Duke, Pepperdine, Georgia Southern, and Liberty, Scarlata gave up 26 earned runs in 19 innings. In the Georgia Southern game, the Lions surrendered 14 home runs, the same number they’ve hit as a team in 32 games this year.

“It was a pretty awful experience at the time,” Scarlata said. “They were the worst possible conditions to be pitching with 40 mile per our winds blowing in a stadium that wasn’t that big to begin with. Every ball that was hit in the air you turned to look if it went out.”

Just two weeks after the game at Georgia Southern, Scarlata took the mound at home against Brown. Seven innings later, he had pitched a complete game, struck out seven batters and earned his first collegiate victory.

A week later, at Harvard, he got his second. He again pitched a complete game and this time it was a shutout as he struck out eight and faced just 22 batters, one above the game minimum of 21.

“It felt really good, especially coming off those poor starts,” he said. “To really pitch well was really important to me.”

Despite a subpar start against Princeton this past weekend, Scarlata has his spot in the rotation and is not going to lose it again.

“The main thing is to have confidence every time you take the mound,” he said. “You need to get in that good mindset. I believe I can win.”

After this year, he has.

His brother told him it would work out.

“So far, it has.”