CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2013 Rob Thomson has envisioned the moment.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s standing on the pitcher\u2019s mound some night this summer at Citizens Bank Park. He hands Daniel Robert the baseball and says, \u201cGo get \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI get shivers right now just thinking about it,\u201d Thomson said the other day.<\/p>\n
He wouldn\u2019t be human if he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
You might remember Robert. The Phillies picked up the 31-year-old reliever last April in a minor-league trade with the Texas Rangers. He went to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and ended up pitching in 15 games with the big club last season. Not bad for a guy who was a hitter (and a good one) at Auburn University and was drafted as a pitcher after throwing just eight innings his senior year.<\/p>\n
Robert became a free-agent in November and earlier this month signed a minor-league contract to return to the Phillies.<\/p>\n
It was the place his heart told him he wanted to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I have a real bond with the Phillies,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m super grateful to them, legitimately the entire staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI owe everything to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robert was standing in front of his locker in the big-league clubhouse Wednesday when he began to tell his story. It started with a strained flexor tendon in his right arm late last season and a trip to the 60-day injured list, which came with a stint at the team\u2019s injury rehab facility across the way at the minor-league complex.<\/p>\n
It was October 31 and Robert was due to throw one of his last bullpen sessions just to make sure his arm was OK before heading home to Alabama. He remembers feeling \u201csuper light-headed\u201d as he began to throw, and that\u2019s about it. He collapsed on the mound and was unconscious.<\/p>\n
The Phillies employ a large staff of medically trained athletic trainers and they are always on site for every workout, no matter the place. As Robert lay on the ground that day in October, the staff sprang into action. CPR was started. An external defibrillator was used to shock his heart.<\/p>\n
In his moment of peril, Daniel Robert was in the right place. Phillies athletic trainers saved his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne-hundred percent,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky they were around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once stabilized, he was taken by ambulance from the minor-league complex to a local hospital, where he spent three days undergoing tests.<\/p>\n
Robert, 6-foot-4 with blue eyes and a friendly smile, was asked if his heart ever stopped. He thought about the question for a second, holding back some emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cUm,\u201d he said with a swallow. \u201cIt was at a lethally low level. And a very irregular rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Months of testing in the Clearwater area and at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta revealed that Robert did not suffer a heart attack. Doctors called the issue \u201can unknown cardiovascular event.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the Phillies\u2019 medical staff, Robert has an incredible support system, starting with his parents, Greg and Lisa, back home in Birmingham, Ala., and his wife, Jillian.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s an ICU nurse so she\u2019s kind of been my translator with all the doctors,\u201d Robert said. \u201cShe was so good keeping family and friends informed. She thought it was honestly a miracle that I was perfectly fine 20 minutes later. It was completely a freak thing. But it was really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
The episode, as one might imagine, has changed Robert\u2019s outlook on life.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne-hundred percent,\u201d he said. \u201cPure gratefulness. Baseball can truly end at any point. And more than baseball can end at any point.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his faith in God \u2026<\/p>\n
Before that life-changing day in October, Robert was a believer.<\/p>\n
Now?<\/p>\n
\u201cStronger than ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Today, Robert has no medical restrictions. He had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) surgically placed under the skin near the side of his chest a month ago and he takes some blood pressure medicine, but that\u2019s it. He underwent genetic testing and rigorous stress testing throughout the winter. He was cleared to play baseball again just a few weeks ago, right before he re-signed with the Phillies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey stayed in touch all winter,\u201d Robert said. \u201cThey were super accommodating. They knew exactly what was going on and had a plan for me. I wasn\u2019t sure if I\u2019d be able to play this season, but if I was able to, I wanted it to be here because of the way the Phillies supported me. All the tests show I\u2019m healthy. The Phillies helped me get to see some of the best doctors in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomson checked in periodically throughout the winter with Robert. So did general manger Preston Mattingly, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and all of the heroes on the team\u2019s medical staff.<\/p>\n
Robert is not currently throwing. Because he wasn\u2019t fully cleared to play until early-February, the team is easing him in this spring. He\u2019s on a month-long strength and conditioning program and will begin working from a mound sometime in March. It\u2019s a long season. He\u2019s got a big arm, a strikeout arm, and some big-league time under his belt. He could end up taking the ball from Thomson some night this summer at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
And if it happens, we\u2019ll all get shivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a helluva story,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cSo inspiring. I\u2019m happy for him.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2013 Rob Thomson has envisioned the moment. He\u2019s standing on the pitcher\u2019s mound some night this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,16702],"class_list":{"0":"post-594717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-phillies-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116138866507650604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}