World Series: Phillies’ Rhys Hoskins Perfects the Art of Getting Back Up
When he was a kid, the prospect known as Rhys Hoskins played on a tiny little field in Wales called Twrch. It was a two-hour drive from his hometown of Newport, where he would see his mother every Sunday, a woman who became one of his biggest fans after he pitched out of a dead end and hit a homer. It was one of the more memorable moments he has in his life, since it was one that he had yet to forget.
At 6′ 3″ and 165 pounds, he was a small man in a small town, and he spent most of his time on a team where he never really fit. And when he wasn’t pitching, he was playing on the softball team, which he tried to take to as many tournaments as possible. When you add in having to play defense because he was only 6 feet tall, there was not much he could do at home.
“I had the best job in the world, and I was getting paid in half a cent on a dollar,” he said. “If I’d worked a little harder I’d have been able to see it. I was always on the road; I didn’t get to see my family as much as I wanted to. I was a complete recluse. My mom was awesome and she always made time. I think I lost an important part of myself for a very long time with all the travelling. I took full advantage of getting drafted in the first round and it was super hard to go back. I took my time and learned from everybody that I dealt with. I had an amazing experience.”
As he got older, Hoskins found himself coming to grips with the fact that he was not who he used to be; although he still possessed a few of the tools he needed to stick in the big leagues, he was not nearly as tall as he had once been and his arm was not as big as it had been. It wasn’t until the end of the 2011 season, when he was one of the top amateur pitching prospects in the game, that he realized he had to get back to where he was. He had already experienced the hard grind of travel pitching for the Phillies, but what would he require to get back to being the pitcher he was before?
“I went to school