Connecticut Jewish Ledger

Marc and Wendy Greenberg of Guilford were in the stands at Dolphins Stadium in Miami the July night when their son Adam was hit in the head by a fastball in his first Major League baseball game.

Adam, 24, had been called up from Double A West Tennessee for his first major league appearance with the big league Chicago Cubs. It was the top of the ninth inning and Valero De Los Santos was pitching for the Florida Marlins. Adam stepped up to the plate and on the first pitch he was hit - in the back of the head.

Marc Greenberg recounts the details of that evening and the subsequent seven weeks.

“It was his first major league at bat so Wendy walked down behind home plate to get a good picture. I’m not sure she ever got the picture,” recalls Marc.

“We have been watching him play baseball for nearly 20 years. When it happened, we waited. First, he was lying on the ground with his knees up, and he was holding his head with his two hands. So we knew he was conscious. He walked off the field - more or less.”

Later, the Greenbergs would learn Adam thought his head was split open.

As all major league teams were about to be off for the All-Star break, Adam was able to return to his parents’ Connecticut home to recuperate. He then returned to Chicago the following weekend, where the Cubs placed Adam on the DL (disabled list).

In mid-July, Adam was sent to Scottsdale, Arizona, the site of the Cubs spring training facility. After one week of rehabilitation in Arizona, Marc reports that Adam “seemed okay.” He then returned to Tennessee on July 28, where Adam played three games before experiencing dizziness.

Adam again returned to the Scottsdale where he saw a specialist from the Mayo Clinic. “He was given specific exercises to do on his own to work on what’s wrong,” reports his father, who described in detail how being hit in the right ear has lead to positional vertigo.

“For a while, he would get dizzy when he bent over to tie his shoes.”

The Greenbergs, who have five children, acknowledge that it has been “one and a half months of complete upheaval - to say the least.”

Marc Greenberg is happy to report that Adam has been symptom-free for the past two weeks.

“He has been playing competitive and not holding back,” Marc notes. Adam has been playing with the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx.

Adam is hoping to play for the Jaxx in the playoffs. And, he may be called up by the Chicago Cubs as they expand their roster.