Well I am officially back in the game! It was only one inning of work but none the less it was a game. Now I can blog a little more about baseball and less about random events throughout my weeks.

I got to throw all of my pitches and I wasn’t as sharp as I would have liked to have been but I was around the strike zone with everything and felt good while throwing which is the best part to me.

Although my stuff was not as sharp as I would have liked for it to be, I did get outs and it is a good building block for me. I now know what I need to work on. I have finally pitched in a game and have seen how every pitch works against hitters. I threw good breaking balls but not my best. The same with change-ups. Also once my velocity gets back to what it was, in another couple of outings the speed differential will be much better which will make all off speed pitches harder to hit.

It is exciting to know I will be able to get back on the mound after a game and know my arm is holding up! You really have no idea what to expect coming back from surgery. I didn’t know if I was going to get hit or be able to throw it by guys and to my surprise it really was the same as last time I threw in a game in 2011, with guys not on time with my fastball and chasing my off speed stuff.

It was an extended game but I did get to face three rehab guys for the Marlins including two guys with big league time, so it really was a good judge for me on how my stuff is playing. Another surprise for me was that I got to start the game. I expected to come out of the bullpen in the later innings but was a little bit surprised to see that I was starting the game and got to go through my normal rituals before a game.

Another exciting part of the day is seeing that the game was in the stadium and not on the backfields which most of them are. It’s fun to be out in Rodger Dean Stadium which is a great place to play. It really is the definition of a pitchers park. It might be the best park to pitch in Minor League Baseball. It’s a pretty large park and the wind is usually blowing in pretty hard from right field. It really takes a very well struck baseball to leave the yard.

I would also like to thank everyone or the support over the last 14 months. My family has been great, the Cardinals staff down here in Florida has worked everyday with the guys in rehab and has put in so much effort to get us back on the field from our PT to strength and conditioning. Everyone plays a huge part in getting us healthy and back on the field.

Also thanks to everyone shooting me tweets with supporting messages! Already have the next blog ready to go so check back in the next few days! I took a trip to Dallas over our break for rehab and had some pretty cool experiences I want to share. Like always follow me on Twitter for blog updates @jordanswagerty and God bless!