EMLENTON, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Chase Ruth was pitching during a fall league baseball game in September of last year when he felt something pop in his right elbow.
Pain snaked down his forearm. The sophomore at A-C Valley feared the worst.
“I could barely lift my arm — I thought it was Tommy John,” Ruth said. “I was a little bit nervous.”
It wasn’t the ulnar collateral ligament that Ruth had felt give out, but the ulnar nerve.
In the grand scheme of things, it was the best possible scenario.
(Pictured above, Union/A-C Valley catcher Chase Ruth)
No reconstructive surgery. No year-long rehab.
Instead Ruth underwent ulnar nerve transposition surgery.
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“My doctor just had to go in there and move it to a different spot,” Ruth said. “He had to cut a little bit off because it was so stretched.”
Ruth was back throwing again in just three months.
“Just in time for baseball,” he said.
Ruth wasn’t cleared to pitch, so he took his every-day position at catcher for the Union/A-C Valley baseball team and played well there this spring for the Falcon Knights.
His elbow still aches — he was told that would be the case as the nerve heals.
“It’s kind of rare,” Ruth said of the injury. “It does happen more with kids my age. We really don’t know what happened. It just came out from throwing a curveball.
“It’s gotten better,” he added. “It’s still gonna hurt every time I throw, but I long toss before every game and stretch it out. I haven’t pitched in a game since September last year and I’m looking forward to pitching again.”
Ruth has been giving his arm a whirl on the mound this summer, stepping onto the hill at a nearby field in Emlenton to throw some pitches.
He’s held up so far.
Every day the pain lessons, he said.
“My doctor said I should be able to get over the pain and it won’t hurt as much anymore,” Ruth said. “He said at maybe six months I should be 100%. That’s coming up next month.”
Ruth, now a junior, has some big goals for his future in baseball.
One day he hopes to play in college.
He also wants to be a big part of a winning Union/A-C Valley season next spring.
“I want to help my high school team win ballgames,” he said.
THE RUTH FILE
NAME: Chase Ruth
SCHOOL: A-C Valley
YEAR: Junior
SPORTS: Baseball
2022-23 HIGHLIGHTS: Came back from elbow surgery to catch for the Union/A-C Valley baseball team.
Q: How would you describe yourself as an athlete?
A: Hardworking and passionate.
Q: What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned while playing sports?
A: Trust your teammates and coaches. They will always be there to help you.
Q: Is there another athlete who has mentored you and what was the biggest thing he/she taught you?
A: (Former Pittsburgh Pirates’ catcher) Francisco Cervelli. He made me fall in love with catching.
Q: When did you become a Pirate fan?
A: I started watching the Pirates probably in 2012, 2013, so I was like five or six. Then they got Cervelli back in 2015. He made me want to be a catcher.
Q: What’s your favorite movie?
A: The Sandlot because that is the movie that made me wanna play baseball.
Q: If you could be another player for a week, who would you be and why?
A: I would want to be (Union/A-C Valley teammate) Sebastian Link because I love the way he puts time and effort into his position and into baseball.
Q: Most people name a professional player when asked that. You named a teammate. Did you tell him this?
A: (Laughing) I didn’t. He’s a big role model.
Q: OK. I have to ask this because you’re a baseball player and you have the last name of Ruth. How many times have you been asked about that?
A: Honestly, people on my Snapchat and on social media have asked me about three times this week.”
Q: Really. Just this week?
A: Yeah. Just this week. They asked if I was related. I believe I am. I don’t know to what extent.
Q: You need to do one of those genealogy things online, trace it back to see how closely you are related to the Babe, right?
A: My parents have thought about that. They said they might do that eventually.
Q: It would be pretty cool if you are somehow related, I would think, no?
A: I have a picture of him in my room. It’s an old metal sign that says “Ruth’s Home Run Candy Bar.” My dad has a newspaper of him from like 1912 locked away. It would be cool to find out if I am related somehow.
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
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