From the Locker Room: Aaron Bummer's Return
For all the calm preached by White Sox GM Rick Hahn and manager Ricky Renteria, treating Aaron Bummer's return as more or less a given, it was a bit startling to realize it was just in the last week that the lefty stopper knew for sure he'd be activated from the injured list.
"About four days ago." Bummer smiled in revealing when he knew for sure he'd return. "It was a slow and deliberate process. Once we got to the sim game stage, it was fight or flight, you’re going to make it or you’re not. Once that started, I felt pretty confident in my stuff and how I felt."
Things escalated quickly for Bummer after first feeling biceps discomfort during an August game.
"Honestly, I kinda thought I was being a bitch about [the throw to first where I was injured]. That was my hope," he said. "The next pitch I threw, I realized it wasn’t’t going to work. [The injury] happened a coupe throws before that that throw to first, but the throw to first really didn’t help."
Bummer felt relief on two fronts. First, that his injury wasn't more severe.
"At first, I was happy it wasn’t a tendon or ligament," he said. "As soon as we found out it was a nerve, it just going to take time. We pushed as much as we could. There never really was a doubt I’d come back, but coming back this year? Everybody has a little bit of doubt [about how fast they can recover]."
Bummer's second bout of relief came from ... the White Sox relief corps.
"The young guys have gone out there and proven what they can do," he said. "Everyone who’s come up have proven what they can do. We get to the ninth with the lead, we believe we’ll get that win every single time. Everyone in the pen has faith in everyone else, and the coaching staff has faith in putting anyone out there."
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Aaron Bummer footage courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.