Allison overdosed again two years later, riding a roller coaster of treatment and relapse, a terrifying journey that concluded in late when, dodging a warrant for his arrest, he found himself alone, penniless, and shivering in the rain on the side of a lonesome road in North Carolina. He settled with the law. He got clean. A tattoo on his right arm records the date he got sober: Dec. The Marlins never gave up on Allison. He bounced around their minor league system, rode bush-league buses, and showed flashes of his former greatness.
Despite bypassing his senior season, he ranks 10th in school history in tackles. There's a lot of things I can improve on, but my instincts will show up. That see-ball, get-ball ability is why he is on the precipice of fulfilling a lifelong dream — one that Jaelan won't be there to enjoy. How has he done it? How has he accomplished so much? How has he handled so much agony? The fact of it is, Jeff started playing football at the age of 5.
It's always been a dream. The people that he has lost were always people that told him that he can do it and would always tell him that, 'One day, you will be on TV on Sundays. Getty Images. Ponton, whose leukemia is in remission, has taken enormous pride in watching her son flourish on the field and grow off the field.
He had to grow up very fast. He had to be strong. He was that rock. Faith has carried the family through unimaginable times. Eleven K's and I thought I was going. I swear I thought I was going. Allison has become a speaker and baseball instructor, a year-old who may be closer to 24 in terms of maturity, because he lost almost four years of his life to the drugs. He still plays high-level amateur ball, in a local summer league that Indians left-hander Rich Hill once played in, called the Yawkey League.
Allison insists he is not retired. But he also says he's giving the answer only because the question is asked of him. The reaction he refers to is drawn at public speaking events, from kids who have never touched drugs, and from some who have. Allison met last year with Chris Herren, the former Celtics player whose career was riddled with drugs.
Herren's making a life of telling his story, of helping people, and Allison has started to do the same. He goes to local meetings in the Boston area, he goes to schools. He sees and feels immense pride when he's able to reach someone, even if just one or two people. His network is growing. But Allison's comment implies something that's not quite forthright: that he wouldn't think about pitching again if he's not asked.
That's not true. Just don't have regrets later in life because you can't go back and get a do-over. But I know I don't want to look back at it now where I am in my life and sit here and wonder, 'what if? What I do know is that I'm happy where I am right now. Allison's hang-up is this pop he heard in , that last season with the Marlins.
It was in his throwing elbow, but the righty didn't say anything to the Marlins, and he thinks whatever's in there could be ugly. I think it's one thing, but it could be another thing, and if it's Tommy John For an arm that could be beyond reasonable repair, Allison said he was fine for an inning or two at a time in the Yawkey League last year.
He said he might well have reached 90 mph. Even if he's exaggerating, a return to pro ball isn't impossible, not definitively. That's only two years ago though. He's only two years removed? I thought it was more than that. Allison could wake up tomorrow and make a doctor's appointment. He could get a physician's order for an MRI, preferably one that calls for a dye injection. Dye allows for more a precise reading. He would need a radiologist for the injection, but they're easy to find when you work a half hour north of hospital-lined Boston.
He'd go for the scan and it'd be over. The whole process would take maybe two weeks, tops, according to Chris Geary, an orthopedic surgeon at Tufts. That's all to bring "peace of mind," as Allison put it. But he hasn't picked up the phone yet, and with his 20s nearly behind him, he has no date set that he will. It's a weird feeling. Because I want to do it. I just, there are some things that are kind of taking off in the right direction, some success here and now I'm speaking to schools and there's some success there with the drug and alcohol awareness thing.
So what does he truly want? Allison at one point invoked the story of The Rookie, Jim Morris. Coincidentally, they shared a pitching coach. Here's a man who beat heroin and OxyContin, who once walked 33 penniless miles in a cold rain when he was in the throes of addiction, who's been as close to death as he was stardom. Now that same man doesn't want to walk into a doctor's office for a routine exam. Allison was a professional athlete gifted with the highest level of talent, and he was an addict.
Very few people fall into either one of those categories, let alone both. Unless you're Josh Hamilton, you probably can't understand. Jeffrey Fishbein was the Marlins' psychologist from the time Allison was drafted until Fishbein took Allison to rehab, spent days at a time with him.
He would take calls from Allison or family or the police or the team at all hours. Fishbein has not previously said much publicly about Allison, but a decade later and with Allison's permission, he agreed to an interview. Fishbein has not talked to Allison about why he won't go for the MRI. In a minute interview, Allison takes one comment back. Immediately and unprompted, he amended his words. This is about so much more than an elbow.
In November, Jeff left the house again, this time on his own accord. The younger Allison now lives in Woburn, Mass. Everything worked for him for so long, and the rest of us have to work our asses off all our lives.
He talks about how hard he worked but he and a gift most people don't ever understand. He made the most of it for a long time. This isn't the case of a father who has become estranged from a son who hurt not only himself but his loved ones as well.
Bob, who has five children, and Jeff are close. There's usually at least a text message every other day. What the two don't talk anymore is whether Jeff should be trying to pitch.
Bob doesn't care about baseball itself, he cares that Jeff follows his passion. When Jeff was drafted and the Marlins went on to win the World Series, the Beckett comparisons were everywhere. So was the pressure. I'll never forget it.
I wouldn't do anything differently. He had used drugs recreationally as so many do in high school, but it was after he started pro ball that he was caught in the undertow. Allison was still young, 10 or 11, when he met Steve Lomasney, a catcher the Red Sox took in the fifth round in Lomasney went to Peabody High, too.
In the backstop's early years of pro ball, Lomasney met Allison at a local clinic, and "could tell at that age he was really good. A little later, around '04, Lomasney got a call from his and Allison's high-school coach, Ed Nizwantowski, or Niz. Not in the respect of, I didn't want to do it.
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