BETHESDA, Md. -- Brent Nadjadi of Elmira, N.Y., plays a little third base, but he realizes that’s in softball. He realizes there’s no way he can make plays like the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado -- “I don’t know how he does it,” he says -- or throw like a young Ian Desmond when he played shortstop for the Nationals.
But it’s the other way around. Ever since he was in the Army in Afghanistan clearing roads of bombs -- an endeavor where “you never bat 1.000, right?” -- and one blew beneath his feet, he has been playing third base on a prosthetic left leg.
When Desmond and several Rockies players and staff visited the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday, Nadjadi was standing with the stump of his recently amputated right leg on a balancer, getting ready for another prosthetic. He is planning to play more softball. So it’s no wonder Desmond and his teammates were the ones doing the admiring.
“That’s pretty much my goal when I come, to make them understand how grateful that we are,” said an obviously touched Desmond, who has grown more talkative and engaging while still in awe of the veterans during Walter Reed visits over the years. “At the end of the day, they’re protecting us, and us is me. For me to be able to give back to somebody and to bring a touch of joy to their day, that’s my duty.”
The Rockies visited three areas of the hospital -- the Military Advanced Training Center (MATC), where amputees and people recovering from severe injuries were doing therapy; and the Military Medical Center (MCC) Adult and Pediatric Infusion Rooms. The Rockies have made similar visits about five times. Younger players on the club are often wide-eyed and a bit shy as they try to comprehend patients’ buoyant spirits.
“The positivity that they showed -- they’re normal, happy people,” said rookie utility player Garrett Hampson. “With the circumstances they have to deal with, it’s just truly amazing. We might be uplifting them, but they do the same for us.”
In another part of the PT unit, where amputees were practicing bearing weight on their current prosthetics and preparing for new ones, Nick Grady, 29, was doing dumbbell squats. The length of his right biceps was stitched, and burn marks covered his left triceps. His lower left leg bore the marks and shiny bandage covering one has after plastic surgery. There were a couple broken teeth, a jaw broken in two places, broken ribs and multiple midsection injuries, too.
But not long ago he was also a player in his own right.
Grady was a right-handed pitcher at Notre Dame from 2008-12. The Giants’ Jeff Samardzija was a teammate. He played against then-UConn and current Rockies pitcher Scott Oberg. After college, Grady received an ROTC commission into the Navy. He was in graduate school at Johns Hopkins when he was run over by a garbage truck in early April.
He is already on his feet, ahead of schedule, and eager to finish grad school and return to the Navy -- and have that right arm well enough to throw a fastball.
Grady said he met with some Red Sox, including former UConn counterpart Matt Barnes during a recent visit. While he’s a Yankees fan, he made Tuesday’s visitors smile by relaying that one of his schoolmates loves the Rockies and refers to them as “America’s Team.” Grady accepted that, for a day.
“Even people who don’t know baseball know that these guys are on the road, they play 162 games a year,” Grady said. “Taking the time when they’re in the area to come down, to fight the traffic, get in through the gate and come here to say hi to us, it’s awesome.”
Nadjadi had tried baseball at Corning (N.Y.) Community College but figured he could not make a living at it and joined his brother, who already had an Army career. He said his unit received an assignment to perform “route clearance operations in the Eastern part of Afghanistan. We didn’t know what that was. They didn’t tell us that in the recruiting station.”
Nadjadi’s injury occurred about 9 months into the job. He went through multiple surgeries over 18 months, had his left leg amputated at age 20 and was walking on the prosthetic leg four months later. But his right leg deteriorated over eight years, so he is now working on his strength for another prosthetic.
In 2016, he joined what was called the Wounded Warrior Amputee (now USA Patriots) softball team because he missed the camaraderie of military life. Nadjadi and several patients, and their physical therapists, will watch the second game of the Rockies’ doubleheader on Wednesday, then host a camp for 20 kids between the ages of 8 and 12 with amputations or limb deficiencies.
Nadjadi can’t wait to get the right prosthetic after his surgical incision line heals and return to the hot corner. The USA Patriots play competitive games against first responders, military and fire departments -- “who we relate to the most.”