Darts kept Bender focused through injury

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This article was published 26/07/2019 (2283 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s not every day someone walks into a sports bar for a $5 burger special — and then walks out of it with US$300 and a newfound talent.

But that’s exactly what happened to Winnipeg Goldeyes pitcher Joel Bender.

“A guy came up with a clipboard and said ‘Hey man, you wanna play in a dart tournament?’ I didn’t know what he was talking about, but then he’s like, ‘It’s $5 to play, you could win US$300.’ So I looked at my buddy, he says go ahead, I played five bucks… Got in there and won the tournament,” Bender said.

It was March 2016. At the time, the left-handed pitcher’s throwing arm was in a 90-degree, full-arm brace from a Tommy John surgery just weeks before. Bender underwent the operation to repair a laxed UCL, worn out from pitching six years of affiliated ball.

“I was drafted injured (by the Cincinnati Reds) in 2010, had a UCL strain about two weeks before the draft. I injured it again in 2013, sat for about two weeks, then again in 2015. I was in triple-A at that time,” he said.

For Bender, that meant learning how to throw darts with his non-throwing arm. Although he’s ambidextrous and right-hand dominant, Bender said throwing right-handed had a definite learning curve. In anything sports-related, he grew up being a lefty.

He planned to shrug off his win as a one-off, until one of the top shooters at the bar approached and invited him to Bull Shooters, a place popular for dart tournaments in Arizona, where Bender lives. That Friday, he made an appearance.

“There was about 100 dart players and I’m like ‘I have no idea what I’m doing here.’ But the guy goes ‘no, everyone’s cool. You play baseball, you’ll be good at this, keep working on it.’”

“I went there and played all night with them guys, they taught me a lot of things. It was a competitive thing, it just kept me focused. It’s like pitching. You gotta hit a certain number, or you gotta throw a strike in that sense. It kept me on edge, it kept me good and I did it for a year and a half,” he said.

Even once he was back with the Reds organization 15 months later, Bender continued to practise and play darts. The coaching staff began to see how good he was and even let him bring his dartboard to the field to play during downtime.

Bender couldn’t — and still can’t — play in any competitive dart leagues since he’s so busy with baseball, but that hasn’t stopped him from joining tournaments across Arizona, central California and Vegas.

The biggest was the Arizona Open, where he’s played twice. Both times he won the Level 1 and 2 mixed-doubles division with his partner, Laurie Kannegiesser. Bender’s hidden talent has ended up benefiting his pocketbook as well — each time the duo has won the Arizona Open, they split a cool US$800 cash prize.

But while darts has mostly been fun and games for Bender, it’s definitely crossed his mind about where he’d be if he hadn’t entered that $5 tournament all those years ago.

The 27 year-old says he still remembers the moments leading up to his 2015 injury like it was yesterday. He was in his prime, pitching Triple-A ball and had just come off of a decent start three days earlier.

It was September, down to the final few games of the season, and the team took a road trip to Toledo, Ohio.

“I threw bullpen that day and then we went into 12 or 13 innings that night in Toledo. It started raining, it was cold, got down to about 40° or 50°F. I’m doing the chart on the bench, the pitching coach looks at me and says, ‘can you go, kid?’

“I’m not going to say no, I’m in triple- A and making my round up to the top. So I go down, warm it up, my elbow is stiff and I go in for an inning and two-thirds, throwing like 80 m.p.h. Just got lucky, got outs,” Bender said.

The other team ended up winning with a walk-off home run on a first-pitch slider. Bender immediately went to his trainer, telling him he couldn’t move his elbow at all. They sent him in for an MRI the next day, and that’s when they told Bender he needed to be scheduled for his 2016 UCL surgery.

As a natural athlete, the prospect of being out of sport for a year and a half absolutely killed Bender.

“If I wouldn’t have had darts, that competitive outlet, I don’t know where I’d be. I was out for 15 months. I think I started throwing around six months and then in games around nine months, but I left around 13 months and wasn’t really back until 15 months,” he said.

“They took me slow. There were a couple other guys that got injured right when I got injured, they got rushed back and they’re not the same anymore. So I’m thankful that I didn’t get rushed back. I’m doing what I’m doing now, I’m pitching well, so I’m okay with that,” he said.

Since signing with the Goldeyes in June, Bender has had many successful showings. In 18.2 innings pitched over 16 games, he currently sits at a 1.93 ERA — second best on the team.

“Everything that I’ve learned in ten years of playing is all coming together. I can just pitch, go out there and have fun,” he said.

devon.shewchuk@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @devonshewchuk