BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK/KBFX) — For Joseph Starick, baseball has been part of his life for as long as he can remember.
The Bakersfield Train Robbers outfielder says his love for the game began when he was just a child, eventually leading him from T-ball to the professional ranks. But in 2015, a devastating head-on collision nearly brought that journey to an end.
Starick was 20 years old and driving to Delta College the day before Thanksgiving when another driver attempted to pass a semi-truck on a foggy two-lane highway and entered his lane.
“It was pretty foggy that morning, and a car attempted to pass a semi, got in my lane, and, unfortunately, we hit head to head,” Starick said.
The crash left him with life-threatening injuries.
“I broke my left arm right above the elbow…completely snapped it. The dashboard went through my left knee. I had ruptures in my spleen, my knees and my liver had lacerations. I inhaled the windshield, so I was having a hard time breathing. It was a lot of damage done,” he said.
While recovering in the hospital, Starick learned the injuries could have lasting effects on more than just his health.
“They didn’t really think I was gonna be able to play ball again. They would, you know, considered it to be grateful I’m alive, which I was at the time,” he said.
Despite what doctors believed, Starick says he never accepted that baseball would no longer be part of his life.
“I just couldn’t believe it, you know, and I just thought… I’m a pretty optimistic person. I just thought I was gonna take some time, and I would be able to,” he said.
His recovery would prove to be a long one.
Over the next two and a half years, Starick underwent four surgeries on his left arm. Doctors used plates and screws to stabilize the injury, and when the bone failed to heal as expected, they performed bone grafts and stem cell injections in an effort to help it recover.
“So, to heal my left arm, I had to get four arm surgeries in the next two years after that accident, and every time it was, you know, waiting for the bone to heal, I had hardware in at the time, keeping it together, like plating screws, and every time…the healing signs wouldn’t be… showing, they’d go in there and do a bone graft or stem cell injection, just more ways to try and heal it,” Starick said.
After his final surgery, doctors removed the hardware from his arm, allowing him to regain movement.
“I waited a couple months, and it was like, I could do everything all over again. Throw the ball, do push ups, all the stuff I couldn’t do all my arm was broke,” he said.
Even while he was unable to play, Starick refused to leave the sport behind.
He remained with his college program, later serving as a student coach at St. Mary’s College before continuing to pursue his playing career.
“I never left my programs I was with,” Starick said.
Eventually, he returned to competitive baseball at Napa Valley College before finishing his collegiate career at William Jessup College.
“I ended up going to Napa Valley Junior College, where I had my 1st season back, and had a good year, and then went on to William Jessup College and had two great years there and finished my college career that way,” he said.
Today, Starick is in his second season with the Bakersfield Train Robbers and his fifth season playing professional independent baseball. Looking back, he says giving up on baseball was never something he considered.
“I can’t see it not being in my life. No matter what,” he said.
He also says his faith played a central role throughout his recovery.
Starick says he believes his faith in Jesus Christ is the reason he is still able to do what he loves today.
Now, every opportunity to step onto the baseball field carries a different meaning.
“I’m just happy to be here, happy to play. Happy to help… you know, if I could do any part of helping them, expand their career, and move up to the next level, that’s means everything to me,” Starick said.