DENVER—Former Colorado Rockies catcher Ben Petrick is returning to Denver to raise money for Parkinson’s disease, the malady that derailed a promising career.
“When I’m having a rough day and can’t tie my shoes as fast or I can’t get dressed in a quick time frame, that’s when it gets the best of me and I kind of get frustrated,” Petrick said from his home in Hillsboro, Ore. “But for the most part, I think I stay pretty positive.” he told The Denver Post.
Petrick, 30, will visit Denver this week on behalf of the Parkinson’s Association of the Rockies.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I watch baseball games and say, ‘Gosh, I wish I didn’t have to deal with this so I could be playing.’ Those are times when you’re sitting around by yourself, or just little snippets of time throughout the day. For the most part, I’m not dwelling on it, and living my life.”
He had hit .323 after being called up in 1999 and followed with .322 the next season. When he was diagnosed with the disease, which his father suffers, the team kept it quiet.
“Heaven forbid if someone thought there was something wrong with me,” he said. “My vanity was there. … That fall (of 2000) was when the disease started affecting my left hand. I had told myself, as an athlete you get hurt and you want to play, and you can play through a little bit of an injury. Sometimes you can sit out and get rehab, but I knew I couldn’t rehab this and I had to figure out a way to get through it. I kept telling myself to put it in the back of my mind, but my left hand and arm were about 60 percent.
But when his performance declined rapidly word got out. He left the game in 2004.
“So there’s a little bit of bitterness in that I would have liked to have seen what could have come of my career. I felt I was lucky to be blessed with some athleticism. I thought I could work through some of the defensive troubles I was having. But I never was able to focus on those things because I was trying to hide my illness – hide it from myself, too, keep myself in a good mental frame of mind that I was healthy and could do it, could keep playing.
“When I look back, it was mass confusion in my brain, trying to keep things in check and not let reality hit.”
These days he takes online classes at Eastern Oregon University. He helps coach baseball and football at Hillsboro’s Glencoe High School, his alma mater. He and his wife, Kellie, are expecting their first child this fall.
“Overall, I’m doing good, but it’s a progressive disease and it has progressed over the last couple of years. I have two bodies. I have one that, when the medication is working, I function pretty well. I have another that doesn’t function well at all when the medication isn’t working.”
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Information from: The Denver Post,
