Baseball: Patience a virtue for St. Charles East grad Benjamin

Patience seems to be a vanishing quality for today's younger crowd.

A little more than two years after undergoing Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left arm that cut short his junior season at the University of Kansas, Wes Benjamin returned to the pitcher's mound this past April.

That's when Benjamin, a former St. Charles East High School standout, threw his first pitch as a member of the Hickory Crawdads - a Class A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.

It was a major milestone for the left-handed pitcher, who was the Rangers' 5th-round selection (156th pick overall) of the 2014 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.

Three weeks ago, Benjamin reached another breakthrough moment as he successfully completed his first full minor league season with the Crawdads.

His patience paid off as the 23-year-old posted some impressive numbers, compiling a 6-5 record and 3.79 ERA in 102 innings of work with just 22 walks and 101 strikeouts. He allowed 2 runs or fewer in 6 of his last 7 starts and earned 3 wins over that span.

His final start of the season came on Aug. 21 when he gave up 1 earned run over 5 innings against Greensboro.

While Benjamin wanted to continue pitching through the final 2 weeks of the regular season, the organization elected to shut him down after he eclipsed the 100-inning mark.

Here comes that word again - patience.

"I wanted to continue playing but it's a good sign that they want me healthy," said Benjamin.

Getting through the season healthy was a top priority.

"It was my main concern," he said. "I didn't really care that much about numbers."

Benjamin, who made 21 appearances with the Crawdads - 18 of them starts - admittedly fought through as many mental hurdles as physical ones to get back on the field.

"Spring training was probably the toughest part," said Benjamin. "I followed a rehab throwing regimen where I was throwing an inning every other day for a while until I was set to go. A lot of it was getting over that hump mentally."

At Hickory, Benjamin began piggybacking (alternating starts) with teammate Erik Swanson - one pitcher throwing the first 5 innings and one throwing the other 4.

"They told me to treat it as if I'm a starter," he said. "I thought it worked out well because Erik is a hard-throwing right-hander and me being a lefty."

The entire season was a learning process of sorts for the 6-1, 205-pound southpaw.

"I learned a lot about myself and how my arm would bounce back," said Benjamin. "Seeing professional hitters and trusting my pitches."

Coming back from a major injury, Benjamin also learned to trust himself again.

"There were several milestones," he said. "The first time I threw 5 innings in a game again was a big relief."

Benjamin, who regained the velocity from his collegiate days (fastball in the 88-93 mph range), also learned opposing hitters were more than capable of doing some damage.

He allowed a home run in 6 consecutive games midway through the season.

"With people on base, I think I was trying to make too fine pitches instead of focusing on making quality pitches," said Benjamin. "Other teams made me pay for it. I corrected it later in the season.

Hickory, a small city located in western North Carolina, grew on Benjamin during his 5-plus month stay.

"I thought it was great," he said. "It's a small, quiet little town. Not necessarily what I'm used to but it's a great community with some of the most loyal fans you could ask for.

"We had great host families - mine was fantastic."

Benjamin also received plenty of support from his own family, including his parents, Scott and Jan, grandparents from Delaware, and grandfather, aunt, uncle and cousins from Pennsylvania, among others.

"It worked out great," he said. "I think it was the first time my grandparents saw me pitch in person."

As a minor league baseball player, long bus rides are the norm - some a bit longer than others.

"We had one wild road trip to play Delmarva (Salisbury, Md.)," recalled Benjamin. "We started on a bus with no air conditioning and switched to a new one with air but no outlets. Then we drove through a flash flood that stalled the engine and stopped for the next four hours or so. We finally got to our hotel around 7 a.m. and had a game later that day.

"For the most part though, the bus rides are not the worst thing in the world."

He will cherish his memories from the 2016 season.

"I had a blast," Benjamin said. "I waited all that time to be part of a team again. It was good for me."

Benjamin will now enjoy his first "offseason" in 14 years, looking forward to a 2017 campaign without limitations.

"Putting all of that behind me is a major step in my progression," he said. "It's a lot of pressure off my shoulders. I can focus on pitching again."

Craig Brueske can be reached at csb4k@hotmail.com.