By Kyle Jorrey
Sports Editor
Rock Mills was born to play baseball.
Maybe it was the name — Rock. It just sounds like a baseball name.
Or maybe it was his father, who forged his son’s birth certificate at age three so he could play teeball with the older kids.
Either way, Mills has always been a baseball player, from his high school days in Cleveland, Ohio, to the summer he spent in Casper, Wyo., playing rookie-league baseball for the Colorado Rockies. But not anymore.
This spring the former All-WCC Pepperdine catcher, who had just begun playing for the Single A Asheville Tourists (N.C.), was forced to retire prematurely from the game because of blood clotting in his left arm.
Despite a lifetime’s worth of surgeries to correct the problem, which had already caused nerve damage his left arm, the condition made physical activity possibly deadly.
“At one time I had 10 blood clots in my arms,” Mills said. “The doctors were worried they were getting close to my heart, and if that happens, I could die.”
So Mills had to step away from the game, but rather than sulk over it, the 23-year-old packed up his bags and returned to Malibu — to get his diploma.
“I was always going to get my degree, there really wasn’t any question about that,” Mills said. “I would have tried to get it done this past summer, but I got back late and couldn’t get into any classes.”
So more than six years after he first entered college at the University of Alabama (he transferred to Pepperdine fall 2000), Mills will receive his bachelor’s degree in business in December. That is, of course, if he can handle the 22-unit schedule he has this semester, frightening, even to someone Rock’s size — he is 6’1’’ and weighs 220.
“Oh my God, it’s been crazy,” Mills admitted. “When I came back in August it had been seven months since I studied, or even opened a book. It’s tough getting back into it. All I do now is go to class.”
Quite a change of pace for the former student athlete, who is more used to hitting home runs than hitting the books.
“It’s weird, I feel like I have more time to study because I don’t have to worry about baseball,” Mills said. “But without baseball, I have to manage my time better.”
Getting used to life without baseball hasn’t been without its downtimes. Having had to abruptly leave a lifestyle he loved, and leave for reasons beyond his control, made the transition even harder.
Mills talks about his short stint in the minors with obvious nostalgia.
“You always hear that some guys hate it, but I loved it,” he said. “It’s an acquired taste. If you hate traveling, then you’re going to hate it. I had a great time. My first year I don’t think we had a road trip that was less than seven hours … you spend every waking hour playing baseball.”
Mills said he still finds it difficult thinking about what could have been.
“I miss it. It’s tough,” Mills said. “I can’t watch it on TV yet.”
But Mills hasn’t strayed too far from the game, at least yet. During the summer he helped a grounds crew in his hometown of Cleveland, and while at Pepperdine he has been offering lessons on hitting and catching.
Mills said he’s even open to helping out his former teammates, many of whom he still knows from his playing days.
“Coach (Steve) Rodriguez has my number,” Mills said. “If they ever need help I’d be there in a second. He knows he can call me.”
But for now, Mills said he has to keep focused on those 22 units and getting his business degree. Afterwards, he says, there will be plenty of cause for celebration. A celebration that is six years in the making.
“My roommate (former Wave Eddie Montague) and I have already got the party planned,” he laughed.
And with the rest of his life ahead of him, Mills said he has no regrets.
“What I went through in baseball, it was definitely all worth it,” Mills said. “I mean, I still have a chance of losing a limb today, but that’s fine with me. I had such a great time with baseball; it brought me out here, it got me to see the whole country. I don’t regret anything.”
October 02, 2003