Baseball
Favorite athlete:Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz. “Like me, he’s been injured, and he keeps bouncing back. He’s a great leader for the Phillies.”
Favorite team:The Eagles. “They look better right now than the Phillies.”
Favorite memory competing in sports:“Probably winning the Senior Babe Ruth championship (in the summer of 2013), playing with some older kids I didn’t know. They really took me under their wing and helped me become a better ballplayer.”
Funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports:“This whole senior we’ve had fun. There have been ups and downs, but my teammates are probably the funniest guys I know. Everyone’s cracking jokes.”
Music on iPod: Country (It’s often blaring from the Indians’ dugout)
Future plans:“Hopefully to come back to Council Rock North. I’d love to teach and coach under Coach Schram. I’d love to work with the kids in this area. I like the kids I coached last year and they’ll be up in high school by the time I’m out of college.”
One thing people don’t know about me:“There’s not much people don’t know about me. I’m a pretty open book.”
Getting injured can be an unfortunate part of the game. In baseball, besides pitchers experiencing arm problems, a catcher is probably the most likely to get hurt, given the nature of the position.
There’s the constant squatting behind the plate, the foul tip that strikes the throwing hand, the wear-and-tear of the up-and-down body movement, the countless throws back to the mound and putting extra steam on the ball to gun down baserunners. More obviously, there’s the threat of home-plate collisions.
But Sam Pfleger’s injury – rather, injuries – occurred not in a game, and not while trying to stop a baserunner flying down the line from third base from scoring. It happened during batting practice. He fell into a BP screen behind the plate, and to call it unfortunate is a gross understatement.
The Council Rock North senior backup catcher was participating in a college showcase at the University of Delaware last summer, hoping to attract some interest from college coaches.
“My team was shagging balls (during batting practice),“ Pfleger said, “and a teammate threw a ball over my head.”
Pfleger landed on one of the legs holding up the screen, and the damage to his body was severe. Basically, he suffered a broken left leg (a closed fracture of the left fibula), and a badly sprained right ankle with collateral damage (a full rupture of the anterior talofibular ligaments).
It happened on July 25, 2014. After two surgeries, 10 weeks in a wheelchair, and extensive, painful rehabilitation, to see him in uniform this season and able to play for Council Rock North is a testament to his heart and determination.
Pfleger loves baseball and his Council Rock North team. And his senior year is so precious. So it was simple for him. He had no doubts he would be back.
“Of course,” he said. “I knew I was going to be back out on the field with my brothers. That’s all that mattered. I wanted to be out there playing with my friends.”
He credits his teammates and coaches for lifting his spirits early on and strengthening his resolve to recover in time for his senior season. The visits to his home by Council Rock North head coach Matt Schram and the team meant everything to Pfleger.
“At first,” Pfleger said, “I didn’t really show it, but I was really discouraged. I thought my season was done.
“But my coaches and teammates were determined to help me out, help me get back on the field, and that helped me so much. It made me push myself harder, just to get back on the field with my friends and coaches I love. It gave me that whole extra boost.”
“He’s a great kid,” said Schram, who marvels at Pfleger’s maturity. “The guys love him. He’s an inspiration. The severity of his injury is something few people have experienced.”
Pfleger’s first surgery was August 1, to insert a plate and screws in his left leg. A second surgery on September 26 was done to remove the screw that reattached his left ankle to his leg. The plate remains.
Pfleger endured six months of intense physical therapy. The PT began a month after his injury, the rehab mostly involving agility exercises and weight training as he tried to build the muscles back in legs.
“I had a few setbacks, but I was able to get where I needed to be right before the season,” Pfleger said, adding that the rehab sessions, “were the worst part of being injured. It was excruciating pain every other day.”
An excellent student, Pfleger will attend Bloomsburg University and plans to pursue a dual major in secondary education and math/special education. He still hopes to play baseball there as a walk-on.
Before the injury, he was exchanging e-mails with college coaches regarding playing opportunities; then he had to tell them he was hurt.
It was a tough blow, also hitting Pfleger’s father, Ken, hard.
“He had high hopes for me, wanted me to get at least a look from a college, maybe as a preferred walk-on,” Sam said. “He never said anything, but I could tell he was disappointed I got injured right in the prime, right when I needed to be seen.”
Once out of the wheelchair, Pfleger advanced to crutches and a scooter, wearing a hard boot on his left leg and a soft boot on his right foot.
“(The doctors) didn’t tell me the exact time I would be fully healthy,” he said. “They told me I would be back by my senior season.”
And he was.
Pfleger has been available for every game. The season highlight, he says, was getting to start on Senior Night vs. Bensalem.
“I haven’t really had any problems, except for tightness in my ankles here and there,” he said. “That’s where I feel it predominantly, when I’m squatting for a long time. But it goes away. I’ve been doing my best, struggling with it a little bit, but I’ve been pushing through.”
Noting Pfleger’s multiple injuries, Schram says he still isn’t 100 percent recovered, but finds Pfleger’s resolve remarkable.
“He doesn’t have the movement that he used to, but he’s out there doing his best and working hard,” Schram said.
The Indians enter the final week of the regular season fighting for a playoff spot. Making the postseason with his teammates – his “brothers,” many of whom he’s played with since Little League – would be especially huge for this catcher who caught a tough break but didn’t let it keep him down.
“There’s nothing I would want more than to make the playoffs,” Pfleger said. “Maybe even make it to states.
“Our coaches always preach to us to stay together and work as a team. To be like brothers off the field and on, and we are.”
Pfleger coached a 12-year-old team last summer and is umpiring this year.
“I just love being around the kids, and I learned a lot from them as well, with adjustments they needed to make as players,” he said. “I needed some of those myself, and it actually helped me as a baseball player.”
His love for baseball and working with kids is something Pfleger would like to parlay into a uniform after he graduates from Bloomsburg. His first post-college goal: returning to Council Rock North and coaching under Coach Schram.
“That’s awesome,” Schram said. “I’d hire him in a second.”
There’s a clear message in Sam Pfleger’s comeback story.
“Never give up,” he said. “Keep your friends close. They’ll help you through it, and they’re always going to be there for you. Be resilient. That’s the key to getting through it.”
