‘No excuses:’ Brookstone’s Jake Martin overcomes challenges to contribute

Brookstone junior Jake Martin is lined up for infield drills with the rest of his teammates on Wednesday at practice.

He chats and laughs with teammates as they go through a line, waiting for their turn to take their position at shortstop, field a grounder and toss the ball back to the coach. Finally, it’s Martin’s turn. Glove on his right hand, he charges the ball, fields it and flips it nonchalantly to the middle of the infield.

If you blinked, you missed it.

Watch again. The way he traps the ball in the webbing, smoothly transfers the glove under his left arm, retrieves the ball and throws it. At full speed, there is virtually no difference between himself and his teammates. None are quicker than he is and some, in fact, may be a fraction of a second slower.

If it wasn’t for the visibility of the defect in his left arm — the lack of size, the underdeveloped hand — separating Martin from the others on the team would be near impossible.

“(Some people) just kind of sit and watch for a little bit and try to figure it out,” said Culver Norred, a pitcher on Brookstone. “For us, he’s just another player. We’ve been out here for so long together that we don’t even realize it sometimes.”

Martin was born premature, weighing just two pounds at the time of his birth. He spent time on a ventilator and survived, but his left hand never developed properly and one leg remained shorter than the other.

The physical challenges he faces may have been enough for some to never give baseball a chance. He didn’t learn how to field a grounder in one hand and use the same hand to make a throw overnight. Nor did he learn quickly how to bat left-handed, so that he could utilize his fully-formed right hand to guide the bat.

It was only for his love of the game, the support from his parents and the Brookstone community that he was able to become a contributing member to the varsity squad this season. He has pitched in one varsity game for one inning with two strikeouts. He has played in three other games, making five putouts in five chances.

“I knew he had a lot of heart, but I didn’t know how much until he came out here and started participating in the baseball program,” Brookstone coach Vince Massey said. “People looking at him and saying, ‘You can’t do this,’ or ‘You can’t do that.’ Jake’s the type of kid, he’s going to prove you wrong.”

Martin started playing baseball as a young child, proof that neither he nor his parents viewed him any differently than any of the other 4- and 5-year-olds. He played Little League baseball and progressed to middle school ball in seventh grade. He has been a part of the Brookstone program ever since.

He was drawn to the sport because of the teammates, he said, having others behind him and working toward one common goal.

“Being in a different situation just drove me to put as much effort into it as possible,” he said. “Doing the best I can with the situation I’m in. Being there for your teammates, you can’t really think about it. You just do it.”

There were challenges, of course. It was difficult to find the right rhythm catching and throwing and hitting. When he first started out, he’d wear the glove on his right hand, his throwing hand, field the ball and drop the glove to the ground as he retrieved the ball to throw it.

“As I’ve progressed, I’ve learned to tuck it under my arm on the infield,” he said. “Or else, when I pitch, I’ve got the webbing I can stick my left-hand finger into and hold the glove and then push it onto my right hand after I pitch. … A lot of people ask me, ‘How do you do it? Show me how you do it.’ But, really, when I try to show someone and break it down, it’s hard for me to remember how to do it. It’s just all natural. I’ve just learned how to do it.”

Martin said it wasn’t always like that. There were times he questioned whether he belonged. Those feelings were short-lived, though, because of the support of his dad as a coach and his teammates in Little League and the Brookstone community.

“You have all those moments where you question if you’re going to be able to do it or not,” he said. “But growing up, I had my dad as a coach, and he was always there for me. And teammates never questioned my ability to do it. They were just waiting to see how I’d do it.”

A few years ago, Brookstone had a team motto: “No excuses.” Martin embodies that mentality, Massey said.

“Jake, he doesn’t see himself any different from anybody else,” he said. “And that’s the way it should be. The special thing about it here is that none of his teammates see him as any different either. He fits in as well as anybody. He can do anything we do. He doesn’t shy away from stuff for any reason. He’s just got the right mindset.”

Martin is a junior and plays on both the junior varsity and varsity teams. Massey said he expects him to be one of the leaders in the clubhouse next season as a senior.

This story was originally published April 2, 2016 at 4:23 PM with the headline "‘No excuses:’ Brookstone’s Jake Martin overcomes challenges to contribute."