1985_02 The Daily Collegian February 1985

              lOThe Daily Collegian
Sports
"Better than ever"
Eric Fox makes his way back from knee surgery
// was a wet July in Caracas. Venezuela
back in the summer of 1983. Fresno State
baseball standout Eric Fox was busy
competing for the U.S. baseball team in
the Pan American games that year. A light
rain had fallen before a game between the
U.S. and Brazil, and Fox remembers the
grass was a little slick.
It was the first round of competition for
the U.S. team, and they were making
short work of the Brazilian squad, leading
8-1 in the seventh inning. Fox had come
up to bat for the United States, and he
continued the barrage his teammates had
started earlier by hitting a fast-moving
ground ball it> the Brazilian third baseman.
Fox remembers: "I ran past the first-
base bag and he (the third baseman) over¬
threw the ball. I went to plant and pivot
towards second base, and my cleat caught
in the ground. So my upper body turned
and the bottom of my leg stayed there, and
my right knee just blew apart. "
What had been a strong, healthy, athletic
knee had become a tangled mass of
snapped ligaments, broken bone chips,
and smashed cartilage in only a matter of
seconds. The chances of Fox ever coming
back to compete in any kind of athletic
competition were almost non-existent.
"I had doctors tell me that I would
never play any kind of sport again, "said
Fox in a recent interview. "In the back of
my mind there was a question mark as to
whether I could come back again. "
Today there is no question: Fox is back
and early season statistics seem to show
that he is better than ever. In the first five
games of the season, the starting FSU
centerfielder has compil
a .409 batti
average, has scored seven runs, stolen two
bases and has knocked five runs in. Fox's
knee is holding up perfectly.
"It really is amazing," said Dr. Thomas
Thaxter, an orthopedic specialist who
first examined Fox's knee after he came
back from Venezuela. "When I saw the
extent of damage to Eric's knee I thought
he would never play baseball again."
"But it's a tribute to Eric that he did
comeback,"Thaxtercontinued."Athletes
seem to have a great tenacity in overcom¬
ing injuries."
Fox feels that his knee is completely
rehabilitated today, although he says it
still feels sore after a workout in cold
weather. Fox also feels he has not lost any
quickness or speed with the injury, and he
says that's the most essential part of his
game.
In 1982, Fox's last full season as a
Bulldog, he placed in the top five of
almost every statistical category in the old
Northern California Baseball Association
conference(FSU now plays in the PCAA).
He was third in batting with a .363 average
as well as in stolen bases with 31. He
placed second in runs scored with 59 and
was fifth in RBI's with 44.
He was the perfect team player that sea¬
son, and he was selected to the Pan Amer¬
ican baseball squad. Fox was racing»Blong
in a perfect career groove, showing off his
talents in South America and then return¬
ing, hopefully, to another great season at
Fresno State. Then came the knee injury
and that perfect career groove slid to an
abrupt halt.
Fox knew he would have to give up his
dream of playing the 1984 season and get¬
ting a shot at the U.S. Olympic baseball
squad after Thaxter performed surgery on
See Fox, Page 11    BaBdog Eric Fox before his knee injury
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February 8, 1985 11
Continued from Page 10
Fox said going into the surgery
Dr. Thaxter had told him it would take a
year to 18 months to rehabilitate the knee.
-I said to him (Dr. Thaxter) how can
you even say that without operating on
the knee, but he wenfin and he was right,"
said Fox. "I was looking to play in the
Olympics last year, and I knew that was in
jeapordy when Dr. Thaxter told me how
long it would take me to come back.
About 12 days after the surgery it really
hit me," '
But the wont emotional shock was still
yet to come for Fox.
The 1984 baseball season saw the emer¬
gence of centerfielder Scdtt Buss, who
played the whole season-in place of Fox.
Buss led the team in batting with a .404
average, scored 68 nins, and was selected
as a third-team All-American. Eric Fox
Sports Briefs
Wrestlers'get 15th win
Head wrestling coach Dennis DeLiddo
picked up career coaching victory number
50 in grand style last night as the Fresno
State wrestling team demolished the
Titan's of Fullerton State, 46-2.
The Bulldogs did not lose one match in
ihc tournament as they improved their
record to 15-6. The shutout marked
only the fourth time this season that
Fresno State has been able to hold their
opponenets to no match wins.
FSU wrestlers Allen Richburg (150-
pound division) and heavyweight Chris
Mast both picked up their 20th victories
on the season. The Bulldogs now have six
wrestlers wflo have won 20 or more matches
The team will travel to Los Angeles this
weekend for the Biola Invitational Tour¬
nament before returning home to take on
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Wedsnesday
night in the North Gym.
Bulldogs host Loyola
e Fresno State baseball team con¬
es their 11-game homestand as Loyola
rymount   University invades  Beiden
field o
r the weekend for a three-game
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ACROSS FROM FASHION FAIR
The Bulldogs are 3-2 on the young
season, having swept a two game series
from St. Mary's University earlier in the
week. Fresno State beat St. Mary's 1-0
behind the three hit pitching performance
of stafTace Mark Gardner Tuesday night,
and destroyed the Gaels 12-5 on
Wednesday.
Tickets are still available for all three
weekend contests, and can be purchased
at the Bulldog Ticket Office or at the
game.
Campus radio station KFSR (90.7 FM)
will broadcast all three contests, with the
pre-game show starting at 6:50 pm Friday
and Saturday night.
had to sit and watch from the stands as
last year's baseball club a new all-time
record for wins with 54.
"The thing that got to me the most was
having to sit up in the sUnds watching
them play a whole season, knowing that I
could be out there playing," Fox said. "I
wouldn't say it was bad, I actually learned
a lot from sitting up in the stands. But 1
got kind of impatient sitting through a
whole season, saying that I wish I was out
there."
StilL Fox was glad to see Buss have
such a great season because, as he explains,
"Scott and I are really good friends."
But now it's a new season for Fox. A
chance to start all over again and re-
stablish the goals he had before the injury.
"My knee feels great," Fox said. "It's
been a little sore the last couple of days
because it's been so cold. Other than that I
think IVe rehabilitated it completely. I
think it's what it was before. It's right
there."
"My main goal is to get back to where I
was before," Fox continued. "My goals
have just been set hack one year."
But Fox says the injury has taught him
a valuable lesson: baseball is not the only
t hing in life. After this season, Fox says he
only needs one more semester in tbe class¬
room to get his degree. But Fox warns if
he has a good season he may try to go after
a childhood dream, playing in the major
leagues.
"If I have a good season, then I'm going
to go for it if the offer is right," Fox
And where does that "right offer" have
to come from?
"I like the St. Louis Cardinals," Fox
said with a grin.
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