“This past summer,” Klimkiewicz finally decided, “I had to change something.”
“Something” became a rigorous off-season workout program, consisting of a rehab regimen with a doctor, a commitment to a summer-long training and conditioning center in Winchester, and participation in an inner-city baseball league at night.
Klimkiewicz dropped about 20 pounds this year, Walsh estimates, and seems back to turning heads—pitchers’ and teammates’ alike.
Having started every game thus far, this time at first, third, and DH, he carries a .618 slugging percentage, a .463 on-base percentage, and leads the Crimson with eight doubles, hitting at an eye-opening, yet not unexpected, .368 clip.
“When we recruited Klim, we really thought he was going to be a middle-of-the-lineup guy for us,” Walsh says. “They’ll know how to pronounce his name before the season’s over, I can tell you that much.”
THE NEW BEGINNING
When asked to evaluate the benefit of returning Klimkiewicz to the Harvard lineup, captain Schuyler Mann doesn’t need to think for very long.
“He’s going to be important,” Mann says. “Just adding another powerful gap-hitter, another home run hitter, makes our lineup so much more difficult to pitch to. Hopefully, he’ll stay healthy.”
It is that last line, however, which sadly serves as the critical albatross Klimkiewicz may never shake.
No matter how much work he does or how well he plays, the thing with Klimkiewicz will always be that final qualifier—that frustratingly operative “if he stays healthy”—which threatens the talent that drew pro scouts to BB&N four years ago.
These days, however, if you ask Klimkiewicz about bitterness and his career, about that left ACL, and what he can maybe do for the team he calls “the best we’ve had since I’ve been here,” you’ll get only hunger in return.
“I want to get back to where I was in high school, where I was at the top echelon of players,” he says. “I haven’t yet been able to do that. Now I feel I’m back in shape and can make it through the game. I can finally let my natural ability take over.”
For the former prep MVP and three-sport standout, certainly, the thought is nice.
“I think you’re starting to see it right now,” says Farkes, his high school and college teammate. “Ask anyone, this is what we brought in Klim to do. He’s right in the middle of that lineup and hitting every single ball hard. It’s something he’s always done better than almost anyone I’ve played with since high school.”
But deep down, you figure, Josh Klimkiewicz knows he can never revert to the player he used to be.
Since that fateful, October kickoff on that fateful high school football field, simply too many years have passed. Too much has happened in the story between now and then.
Don’t blame chance, though.
Or luck. Or odds.
For him and the Crimson, ironically, that difference might be the biggest reason to smile of all.
—Staff writer Pablo S. Torre can be reached at torre@fas.harvard.edu.