the lineup card: Season 2; vol 7
Without a unifying professional sports team to rally around, the heart of Arkansas beats to the rhythm of college sports. Much like any average local in the state, Jonesboro native and current Razorbacks pitcher Josh Hyneman grew up cheering on the Hogs in all sports.
The 6-foot-4 sophomore recalled attending games at War Memorial Stadium, Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium and Bud Walton Arena as a little kid. Bound to his father’s hip, the future Razorback watched intently while his grandmother plugged his ears to drown out the raucous crowd. That same pride for the school’s athletics programs has surrounded him ever since.
“It’s something that ties all of the state together,” Hyneman explained, noting that it is very rare to go anywhere without a Razorbacks fan in his vicinity. “This is the pro team to a bunch of people. Being in the SEC, you start seeing players that are gonna be pretty much automatic draft picks, so you’re watching the best of the best at the collegiate level, you’ve got the best fans in the country, the best facilities there…Everybody wants to come out and be part of that One Razorback.”
For students at Jonesboro High School, the University of Arkansas holds an esteemed status as the ultimate destination, often fondly dubbed as the “13th grade” due to it being a natural continuation for many graduates. At age 14, Hyneman played his first tournament with the Arkansas Sticks travel team under head coach Chase Brewster. He quickly told the well-connected coach that like his classmates, he wanted to be a Razorback. Within two weeks of knowing Brewster, Hyneman made his first college phone call. Receiving attention from Division 1 programs was a huge step in his life, but not one that he would consider unexpected.
“Growing up in the house I came from, there’s really no selling yourself short, especially around my mom,” Hyneman stated. His mom, a real estate agent and former physical therapist, and dad, who works in agriculture, both helped instill the ‘want to win’ mindset he carries today. No dream was considered out of reach. “I kind of always knew that this is what I’m going to do. I just had to figure it out.”
Nearly two years after those first conversations, on his 16th birthday to be exact, the stocky right-hander earned an offer and officially committed to play SEC baseball at his dream school.
The Freshman Fall
Hyneman arrived on campus at the beginning of July 2022 with his three roommates – Gage Wood, Parker Coil and Sean Fitzpatrick – to get the lay of the land and undergo physicals. As soon as everyone got cleared, they immediately got to work, throwing with each other and lifting in the weight room. Coaches were not there yet due to NCAA rules, but all four players wanted to be in tip-top shape by the time fall practices rolled around.
As exciting as it is to make the jump to the collegiate level, adjusting to the speed of the game is easier for some than others. Ranked by Perfect Game as the No. 5 high school prospect and the No. 4 right-handed pitcher in the state of Arkansas, even Hyneman leaned toward the latter.
“For me, it was pretty difficult. It took me a little bit longer,” Hyneman admitted. Mechanically, there were no drastic changes to be made, but in the SEC, those hitters will make you pay for every little mistake. “The biggest part about that freshman fall is you get to learn so much. You’re picking all these guys’ brains. As a pitcher, you can get better from just talking to pitchers but you got to see the other side of it, too, because hitters pick up on a lot more than you think they do.”
Growing up, Hyneman kept an iconic Yogi Berra quote as his screensaver. It read:
“Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.”
Until recently, he thought that saying was mostly cliché. Now, he knows it is 100% true. If Hyneman wanted to truly throw with conviction and become more resilient on the mound as his coaches preached, he had to dive into the minds of his teammates, opponents and his own. For example, if one of his teammates worked a 10-pitch at-bat against him in practice, Hyneman would approach that batter later on to ask them what they saw and find out why he was unable to put them away.
“Maybe your release points are different on each of these pitches. Maybe you’re pushing your change, or maybe you’re squeezing your glove a little harder whenever you’re gripping your fastball,” Hyneman detailed from the hitter’s perspective. “As you pitch against them consistently, you start finding their strengths, their weaknesses, maybe some things that you want to save for better times on the count and things that you want to get ahead early with. So there’s just a lot of knowledge that circulates that locker room and as you sit down and start talking to anybody you can probably find a piece of information to help you get better.”
It works both ways, too. Sometimes, as soon as 15 seconds after a live at-bat concludes in practice, the batter will grab the pitcher walking toward the dugout.
“Why did you go there with that pitch?”
“Why did you give me a fastball in that count? I was sitting off-speed.”
With each practice and scrimmage, Hyneman’s knowledge of the game grew. However, by the time the spring season arrived, the reality of being a freshman on a loaded pitching staff made it clear that he had much more to learn before seeing the field.
Redshirting
Hyneman was not aware that he would be redshirting as a freshman. At least, not right away.
He remained in the dugout during games and even made it down to the bullpen once or twice. The only real difference was that he did not travel with the team for certain road trips. Despite the absence of playing time, Hyneman never felt like an outsider in the locker room.
“That was probably one of the closest teams I’ve ever been on,” Hyneman claimed, mentioning how they rallied together, battled through injuries and overcame adversity on their way to an impressive 43-18 record. “It was hard in the beginning, but I could put myself to the side and realize there’s bigger things going on here. I’m an Arkansas fan for life. I know how big these things are. If redshirting is what it took to bring a ring to this university, by all means, that’s what’s gotta happen.”
Although there were no in-game reps to be had, practices were no different for Hyneman than it was for the everyday starters. In each bullpen session, he worked on his fastball command, sitting around 92 to 94 mph while topping out at 96 mph. Mastering secondary pitches is a never-ending mission for pitchers, and the tall right-hander has three off-speed options to tinker with – a slider, a curveball and a changeup. Stacking up minor adjustments day-by-day, Hyneman knew that being able to consistently put those pitches where he wanted was the key to taking him where he needed to be in the future.
The Razorbacks season concluded with a 12-4 loss to TCU in the NCAA Fayetteville Regional championship round. Hyneman, who had not thrown off the mound in an official game since high school, headed out west to play summer ball with the Santa Barbara Foresters of the California Collegiate League. As of last spring, 64 former Foresters have gone on to debut in MLB, including flamethrowing Cardinals reliever Ryan Helsley, reigning World Series champion Josh Jung, and AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Tanner Bibee.
“A phrase that we use here is ‘sped up,’ and I would say that I was ‘sped up’ for a good portion of last year,” Hyneman reflected. It took a while for the Arkansas native to slow things down, but as soon he was able to retake the mound, the culmination of a year’s work and knowledge came together all at once. “I gotta give a bunch of credit to my summer ball team in Santa Barbara. I don’t know what exactly clicked. The second I got back to play, I remembered — this is a kid’s game. Just have fun out here. Keep doing what you’re doing. We’re all good enough. We’re all here. Now just go play.”
“Something’s not right”
When Hyneman arrived in Santa Barbara on June 1, it was the furthest west he had ever traveled. His mother, who was originally from Arizona, had told him great things about that part of the country, and those reviews turned out to be accurate.
To him, Santa Barbara was not much different than Jonesboro. People were always seen walking around outside in the sunny weather. He could always see smiles on their faces. Even though Hyneman did not know anybody in Santa Babara, he felt like he knew the people around him. The community welcomed him and accepted him from day one.
Part of what makes the collegiate summer ball experience so unique is the idea of staying with host parents, and Hyneman had the opportunity to live with Foresters teammate Dane Dawson and his family. Whether the Arkansas pitcher was on the field with his teammates and coaches or at home with the Dawsons, he felt like he was part of one big family, comparing the experience to his travel ball experience with the Sticks.
On June 10, Hyneman made his Foresters debut in their season opener. He threw 1.2 innings of relief, striking out three batters while walking four. The right-hander said he felt comfortable on the mound against other collegiate hitters, but as he left the mound, he noticed his elbow was more sore than usual. There was no pop or anything so instinctively, he brushed it off, telling himself that it was likely a result of not throwing in a while. He took a day off, did all of his recovery work, and took some medicine to help alleviate the soreness.
“The next day, I woke up and my elbow just kind of felt like it was stuck bent. It was just really hard to get it out there for the first few hours of that day,” Hyneman described. The next time he attempted to play catch, he was unable to pull his arm down, airmailing his target from just five yards away. “I immediately put the ball down and told Coach Pintard, ‘Hey, something’s not right.’”
Pintard immediately took care of Hyneman, bringing him to the team trainer. Mr. and Ms. Dawson began making phone calls, helping set up doctor’s appointments and communicating with his parents back home. A week later, while sitting alone on a table in the doctor’s office, Hyneman was informed that he needed Tommy John surgery.
“I tell people all the time, the hardest thing about Tommy John is the first five minutes. I mean, I didn’t know what to do,” Hyneman said, dreading the daunting year-long recovery that lay ahead. He had experience with surgery before, repairing a meniscus tear in 2020, although he wound up missing zero high school games due to COVID. This time was different. His arm was his livelihood, and now, the chances of him suiting up for the Razorbacks as a sophomore were all but over.
Hyneman called his mom right there and wept. Then, he called his coaches at Arkansas to inform them of the news. No matter who he talked to, they offered him the same words of encouragement, assuring him that he would get through it and come back even stronger. He returned to Fayetteville on June 21, three weeks after he had left for Santa Barbara.
After the surgery was over, Hyneman woke up with a heavy-duty brace locked at a 90-degree angle on his throwing arm. There was no pain in his elbow anymore, but since they had to take a ligament from his knee to do the operation, that gave him fits for a few days. Once his knee and hamstring returned to normal, he hit the ground running on his physical therapy.
Hyneman said that the most challenging obstacle for him was not the rehab itself, but the minor inconveniences he learned to live with. For one, it was the hottest time of the year in Arkansas, so the cast was especially sweaty. Then, there was adapting to doing everything else with his left hand – using a fork, pouring a glass of water, brushing his teeth, washing his hair, and more.
Through his darkest moments, Hyneman had the support of his parents, his two younger brothers, Alex and Taylor, and his girlfriend Cora Hair, who plays for the Razorback soccer team. Also, the Dawson family, whom he formed a lasting friendship with. Since beginning the rehab process, Hyneman has approached each day with a positive attitude, according to Razorbacks star infielder and team captain Peyton Stovall.
“Josh’s work ethic has been one of the best I’ve seen when it comes to an injury,” Stovall said. “He faced the rehab head-on and it made everyone else around him, including myself, work harder in the training room. Training alongside him has been an absolute pleasure and a privilege because I truly believe I wouldn’t be where I am in my rehab process without him. He continued to push me even though we didn’t have the same injury and made sure that I did everything to the best of my ability.”
Hyneman’s first milestone was achieving full range of motion with his arm again. Within the first week of stretching with Arkansas athletic trainer Corey Wood, his arm extension improved from 90 degrees to around 110 degrees. Week by week, it kept going down further and further until it got to the point where his arm was almost completely straight. From there, they began adding weights to those movements, very slowly building back strength.
As everything progressed, Wood introduced more complex exercises. Hyneman said that the body works like chains, starting in the back muscles and working its way down to the fingertips. Everything is connected, and in order to get the chains moving cohesively again, he must strengthen every single link. Following several months of checking each box, Hyneman has put himself in a position to begin throwing again.
“The road to recovery is never easy. All the guys work so hard and sacrifice to do the thing they love. When that’s taken from them, it can be crushing,” Wood explained. “Josh has been very professional and I can tell he appreciates every new step, new exercise, or new lift he gets to add to the routine. He is the embodiment of what it means to be a Razorback and I can see he’s dying to put the uniform back on and make everyone proud.”
The Road Ahead
On Monday, Hyneman began throwing again for the first time since his injury occurred. For the next couple of months, his routine will be the same every other day:
- 20 throws from 30 feet.
- 10 throws from 40 feet.
- 10 throws from 30 feet.
Barring any setbacks, Hyneman should be back on the mound in April. The 2024 season will be a medical redshirt year for the right-hander, so he will have to wait until 2025 for his potential collegiate debut. However, if all goes well, a return to pitching competitively in Santa Barbara could be in store for Hyneman this summer.
The redshirt sophomore has documented 26 weeks of physical therapy on social media, highlighting #BeLikeCJ on every baseball-related post. He wears a bracelet with the same hashtag and number 24 on his left wrist, representing Cedrick Harris Jr., his former travel coach’s son who tragically lost his life at age 14 following a traumatic head injury in 2021. Coach Harris is very influential in Hyneman’s life, and the loss of CJ, who was known to be the ultimate teammate, has deeply affected him ever since. Hyneman hopes that those who follow him are redirected to the BeLikeCJ Foundation through his social media posts.
One of the hard-throwing righty’s goals is to represent CJ’s legacy on and off the field. It is why he has committed to attacking not only his training, but helping motivate his teammates through theirs as well. In just a year, Hyneman will finally get to demonstrate that same toughness in front of the fans at Baum-Walker Stadium.
“It’s going to be electric,” Hyneman said with a smile, “I can’t wait to put the uniform on, whether it be red, white, cream or gray. I’m just ready to have the ‘A’ on my hat, ready to have it across my chest and pitch in front of the best fans in the nation. It’s something that’s been weighing very heavily on my heart. I can’t wait to showcase what I got.”