Hunter Crim had dreamed of playing professional baseball his entire life and has played for as long as he can remember.
“I’ve always had a ball in my hand,” he said.
He played three sports in high school, but for Crim, baseball was the be-all and end-all. As a starting pitcher for Culpepper County’s varsity baseball team, he loved it. Getting paid to play would be a dream come true, Crim said.
However, two years ago, Crim’s dream came to a grinding halt. On a Thanksgiving weekend, Crim, then a junior in high school, and a few of his friends were splitting wood for money. One of his friends was operating a hydraulic wood splitter, while Crim set each log into the machine. At some point, the machine was about to split another log, but the log fell off. Crim grabbed the log and placed it back into the machine, but did so just as the splitter was coming down. The V-shaped piece of steel, with a splitting force of approximately 2000 psi, came down onto his right index finger.
Crim was immediately rushed to Culpepper hospital where he received x-rays and bad news.
“I got my x-rays, and the top of my finger was shattered, my bone and everything,” he said. “All I had was ligament holding on to it.”
Shortly after he received his x-rays, Crim was rushed to UVA to repair his finger, which he states “never really happened.”
In the one month following the injury, there were four separate attempts to repair his finger.
“It was a dark month, going in and out of surgery — not knowing what I would be able to do after,” Crim said.
Finally, on Christmas Eve, after three previous surgeries, Crim ended up having the remaining part of his index finger amputated. Leaving a nub at the second knuckle. He said it was “a nice present.”
When asked about how he felt about the upper part of his finger being removed, he responded “I was just shocked really. It was something else.”
Such a loss would be hard to deal with for the average person. But Crim is a pitcher. In baseball, a pitcher must be able to have full control over the spin of the ball and its path of travel to the catcher’s mitt. The ability to do this becomes even more crucial at higher levels.
Here at FCC, the baseball team competes at a very high level and has been nationally ranked year after year. A pitcher who hopes to have a chance at obtaining a spot on the roster must be a cut above the average high school graduate or transfer student. He must have control of the baseball and bend it to his will. Such a skill takes years of practice to perfect. It is hard enough to make all this happen with four fingers, let alone three.
“That was the first thing to pop into my head, to know if I could be able to do what I what I do,” Crim said.
However, Crim said the transition wasn’t as difficult as he had imagined it would be.
“I just substitute my index finger for my middle finger,” he said. “My middle finger takes over the purpose of my index finger.”
Crim returned to playing sports as soon as he could.
“I finished my basketball season, I played the last five games, got a standing ovation from the fans – it was dope,” he said.
He even had moderate success in pitching that year.
“I didn’t touch a baseball until baseball season,” Crim said.
He pitched in two games and did fairly well with his new throwing technique.
Even after losing something as important as a finger, Crim stressed that, ever since the injury, he has found more enjoyment in life.
“My life’s kind of brightened up ever since the injury,” he said. “I kind of like my life better now that I have the nub than I did when I had all four fingers. … It gave me the mentality that you can pretty much get through anything, and it made me better as a person and tougher as a person.”
Crim is now a freshman, and is pitching for FCC’s baseball team. But he stresses that he doesn’t focus on the on how good he is, finger or no finger.
“As long as you get the job done, that’s all I care about,” he said.
Make no mistake, Crim can really throw. And hard. He can keep up with the best of FCC’s pitchers in velocity, accuracy, and results.
“It’s pretty special because it’s not the norm,” said Blake Lazur, a sophomore outfielder and fellow teammate of Crim’s at FCC. “It’s pretty cool that he can still throw it at a good speed with different fingers.”
Despite many good things going for Crim’s baseball career, he understands that there is a life beyond the diamond. While in his senior year, he took an early childhood education class and felt it was right.
“I’m a major in early childhood (education), so I want to do something with kids – that’s my backup plan,” Crim said.
Crim isn’t sure where he may go after FCC.
“It depends on how baseball goes,” he said. “The success on the field and in the classroom.”
With the confidence and strength found through his experience, Crim hopes to pass on that same mindset to others who may be in similar situations.
“I made it through my obstacle, but I’m always looking forward to helping other people too,” he said. “If anybody ever has any setbacks or they think they can’t get through something, they can always contact me. I can help them with whatever they’re going through.”
