Isaac Hess

I knew I wanted to play professional baseball from the time I was 10 years old and realized what it felt like to drive a baseball over the fence, experienced the smell of my glove when I put it up to my face, and the feel of the rush of Saturday night under the lights when I took the mound. Although I really wanted to start early, I was unable to play when I was 6, 7, and 8 years old because of my hip. But, once I began playing my first year when I was nine, I fell in love with everything about the game and knew that I would do everything in my power for as long as I could to make it to the big leagues and achieve my goals because I felt such a connection to what I was doing while playing and staying on a consistent pursuit to improve my ability.

I was always fortunate to have the support of my mother in my path, always attending my games and always being the one in the stands that was ridiculously loud! I was never embarrassed. I was always proud and thankful to have her there watching and supporting me. I knew that if I worked as hard as I could that baseball could one day could enable me to pay for the “log cabin up north” that my mom had always dreamed about having, and I really wanted to be able to buy it for her because I always felt like she deserved it so much for everything she always did for me.

I always knew that I could be successful at baseball and that I would be the only one that could stand in my way.

After playing my freshman year at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, AZ, I went to Washington State University on a full ride scholarship in 2004 only to be told I wouldn’t be cleared to play due to my hip condition. The doctor informed me that I would most definitely need to receive a hip replacement in due time, but that I should try to put it off until I was at least 30 years old. It was a strange situation that I’d been in with my scholarship. I had signed a full ride scholarship with WSU and was guaranteed the year of paid school. It was literally on my first day of showing up to the university that I had a physical and was told my hip was too far gone. Although I was in a lot of pain on a regular basis, I was not yet aware of what a hip replacement even was and I was completely ignorant to the fact that need this surgery was even a possibility. 

I had hip trouble growing up that ultimately led me to having a very arthritic hip joint by the time I was 19. My hip was highly arthritic due to a condition I had when I was young. The condition I had is known as legg-calve perthes syndrome, and it disrupts the development of the hip socket and eventually leads to osteoarthritis and ultimately osteonecrosis.

It was because of this condition that I was a candidate for the surgery, and it was because of baseball that I made the decision to get it done so young. Additionally, I was in a great deal of pain on a daily basis by the time I was 19 years old. My hip socket had no cartilage and it was almost 100% bone on bone by the end. I was taking up to 12 ibuprofen a day and I wasn’t trying to keep that going. This amount of pain was going on was mostly while I was up at Washington State about six months prior to my surgery.

Devastated by not getting cleared to play at the Division 1 school I had worked so hard to get a baseball scholarship to, I decided to respond by looking for solutions. Getting back on the field in the face of all the doctors telling me to quit was an act of stepping into the land of unknown for me, but I looked and looked and tried to find the way it would be done. I chose to get the procedure done at the early age, so I could do what I needed to do to make a rare come back to the game. The only other player in the history of the world of professional sports that I found to have played any sport with a total hip replacement was Bo Jackson. He lasted two years playing baseball with his prosthesis. I decided I would get it done and trust that I would do what would be necessary in order to recover and get back on the field. I was fortunate to play seven seasons with no issues. I finished my seventh season in 2013 with over 700 professional innings pitched. A big part of this was because of Mack Newton. He is the one that helped Bo get back on the field, and he helped me, too. I don’t know if anyone will ever play a professional sport for seven years again, like ever in history, in any sport. If you know of someone who has or ever does in the future, I would love to know.

A major disruption in my baseball comeback plan presented itself in May of 2005. My mother, Eve, was out with some girlfriends in Scottsdale and unexpectedly passed away from a random and unexplainable heart attack. This made life pretty difficult that summer. My father had also just passed away in September of 2004 from a bout with cancer. In the span of nine months I lost my dad, then my mom, and then got a total hip replacement.

This pile of obstacles was all thrown on top of the fact that I was transferring schools from WSU to University of Arizona, and now I was doing it all on my own. Life was hazy around that time to say the least. I always told people I had to go left(positive), or I had to go right(negative)…but either way I would be choosing to accelerate in that direction and there would be, and really I felt like there could be, no middle space. I was questioning a lot about life during this time. I knew that in order to justify my mom’s shortened time on Earth, that I had to uphold the positivity that she raised me with. For this reason, and because I’ve always had such an amazing support group of champion people around me, I have been able to keep moving with a smile on my face. I chose to focus on being thankful for what I’m blessed to have rather than dwell on the events that occurred. It was this ruthless attitude that propelled me in everything I did/do and was the reason I was able to make a comeback as only the second player to ever play professionally with a hip replacement.

It was like my mindset flipped as soon as I had the massive challenge of having the hip replacement and knowing I would need to figure out how to navigate getting back on to the field.

During my seven year career I have been fortunate to win 4 championships, win a championship MVP, throw a no-hitter, be named to Baseball America’s Top 10 Prospects two years in a row, pitch in Mexico as one of the youngest imports to ever play, pitch in five different countries for 11 different teams, and pitch over 700 innings all on a hip that doctors have always told me I can’t and/or shouldn’t pitch on. A crazy amount of positive and ridiculous things have happened and continue to happen throughout my journey, and none of them ever seem like luck or coincidence. I was picked up by four different affiliated organizations in the MLB only to be told they would not clear me to play, simply because I was classified as a liability more than an asset due to my hip. It was very difficult to continue to be told “no” so many times, and I learned to focus on how I would respond to the answers I was getting rather than what the answer was. Since learning to do this I felt like I conquered the world. For me, this positive response that I chose to make was the process of “making myself” which is where the term and/or state of mind of “Gettin’ MADE” or “Get MADE” has been created.

The path of my seven year playing career has been like a fairy tale for me, with so many unforgettable experiences enjoyed, so many relationships built, and so many lessons learned. For me, the ride has still not ended and never really will. Baseball has helped shape my life starting with my ATTITUDE. I tend to be pretty passionate about what I am doing on the field, whether it be training or teaching. My knowledge, attitude, and baseball acumen give me something very valuable and unique to give back to those that are first realizing what the smell of their glove is like or what it feels like to rip a double in the gap on a Saturday night under the lights. Most importantly, for those that want to be a part of a quality group of champions who are working towards a common goal. That is one of the reasons that I chose to create the MADE baseball program. The other reason is because I know how I trained when I was young, and it was sub-optimal to say the least! I knew nothing about pitching training, hitting training, baseball conditioning programs, or real nutrition, and I did not have someone that truly cared to guide me. I never was able to get private baseball lessons either because my mom was raising my brother and I on her own. My mother always provided what we needed as kids, and she was always there to get me to my games and practices, but she really didn’t know anything about what quality baseball training, nutrition, or baseball conditioning truly entails. I find that not many parents out there really do know what it takes for their players to progress the way they would like to see, thats why MADE Baseball now exists and that why I now give private baseball lessons in Santa Monica full time. As young athletes we have a huge advantage if we are taught the proper methods early in order to create a remarkable foundation of habits to build up from. That is what MADE is all about…Motivation, Appreciation, Dedication…EVEryday. Doing our best all the time and continuing to create positive habits towards success in our lives.