From the age of 2 and the first time he picked up a ball and threw it to me, I know there was some thing special. About 10 feet away from me it hit me right in the chest. So I rolled it back to him and he did it again, right in the chest. So from there we started our baseball journey but not even really knowing it. Skipping Tee-ball, at the age of about 7 my wife volunteered me as a coach. We did little league for two years then jumped right into travel ball. He just seemed to accel quicker then most. After trying out for the local travel team he ended up in right field. The team manager had 2 sons of his own on the team so you can guess what position they played. One Sunday game I was sitting down the right field line when one of the other coaches from our team walked up to me and said to me "if I was manager TJ would be playing short stop". The next year that coach called me and said he was starting his own travel team and invited TJ to be part of the team and if I wanted to coach with him. I accepted and so started our travel ball journey.
Traveling thru Long Island, New York, into Conn, Pensylvania, down to East Cobb in Georgia to Disney in Florida, and some other local showcase including Perfect Game where he pitched at the Minnesota Metrodome. During that time he was invited to play with the East Coast Grays. The Grays brought him back to Jupiter Florida where he acceled in the WWBA World Championship. That led to The East Coast Pro Showcase then onto the Area Code Game in Long Beach California. At this point just about every Division 1 school in the country had interest. He had offers some full from St Johns University and Hofstra in NY as well as East Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Arizona State, Wake Forest. But it was at the Area Code Games where I was invited to a box on the first base line of Blair Field to sit with Coach Tim Corbin of the Vanderbilt Commadores where we chatted about what he had to offer TJ and how he would fit in to the baseball program there. A few weeks later Coach Corbin and his wife Maggie came to visit at our house and laid out a detailed projection of TJ's Vanderbilt journey, comparing it simalarly to that of David Price. Then came the visit to Vanderbilt University. A tour of the baseball facility and the campus. The felling of family was evidend from the interaction of players and coaches going about thier daily routine's while we were in Coach Corbins office. TJ commited by the ens of that meeting. Then came the MLB draft TJ was selected late round by the Houston Astros but decided to go to Vandy
TJ fit right into the rotation. (Funny thing about that statement is earlier that summer at one of our games a MLB scout that we have met with in the past, Asked me "wht would you go there, he'll never get a chance to pitch there?) Anyway, TJ had a very succesful freshman season going 7-0 with an ERA of 1.87 with 38 strikeouts in 36 inning and opponents batting .192 aganst him. Until The SEC tournament. Making his first SEC start and the first game of that tournamen, in the third inning he leaves the game with what turned out to be a torn UCL (Tommy John). From that tournament on Vandy went on to make thier first College World Sieries apperance, at which TJ was not allowed to attend due to some kind of shool policy even with the team advocating for his presance. With the tournament being in Alabama he was able to see Dr. Andrews who developed the surgury and Dr Kaine who performed it. As it turns out the elboe ligament did not tear, it actually detached from the bone and according to the Dr. this happens is somewhere around every 1 in 200 and a much better scenario than a tear. They re-attach it and also graft in a ligament taken from another part of the body. While healing occurs in weeks, a full competitive return to throwing often takes 12-18 months, TJ was back on the mound in 9 months with great succses. after missing his sophmore year to recovery, later in his Sophmore season he pitched a complete game shutout against a very powerful Ole Miss Rebble team, throwing 27 of 31 first pitch strikes with 7 one pitch outs no walks and allowing only 3 Rebble's to reach second base. (Highlights of that game can be seen on the More Videos page). After that game he was interviewed by ESPNU that was covering the game and after the interview, the sportscaster had summed up his performance and ended with "I've never seen anybody come back from that injury that quickly with that much success at any level.
As a Junior thru his Senior year he delt with some nagging injuries that limited his time on the mound. At one point he developed petella tentonotis in his knees. With that going undiagnosed for a time he started to make adjustments in his delivery to avoid pain when landing resulting in a drop in velocity and command. With time on the mound being limited and recording minimal innings he missed the draft. Earlier in his time at Vandy thier long time pitching coach Derek Johnson left Vandy for the Chicago Cubs Pitching Coordinator position. After hearing TJ was not drafted he called TJ an invited him to Arizona to be signed to the Cubs organization. I had called coach Johnson and told him TJ had pain in his shoulder. Coach Johnson said "send him out and we'll take a look" so we did. After being evaluated by team dr.'s test reveal a torn labrum. With the cubs now knowing that he needed surgury, they couldn't sign him and told him to go have it repaired and when he was ready to come back out to Arizona when he was ready. With shoulder surgury being what it is and full recovery very rare, His shoulder was never good enough to throw a baseball to the level he used to. In 2014 Vanderbilt won the College Baseball World Series as TJ was a big part of thier road to that result.
TJ went on to work and continues to work as on of the best pitching instructors in the NY area and coach at a local training facility. He had won Long Island best High School Coach two years in a row. He is also co-founder of the Command Center throwing program.