There’s a certain freeness to Daniel Bard’s comeback attempt.
Maybe it’s the lack of pressure. Maybe it’s the experience he gained while working as a mental skills coach in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization over the past two seasons. Or maybe he’s just enjoying the moment.
Whatever the case, Bard, who turns 35 next month, has embraced a whole new mindset in his quest to return to the majors seven years after throwing his final pitch for the Boston Red Sox.
“It felt different,” Bard recently told The Athletic’s Peter Gammons, recalling when he stepped onto a mound to throw for fun this past fall. “I didn’t feel traumatic. The trauma I experienced was past. There was no anxiety. Things had slowed down. I’d stand on the mound and feel fine, and, most important, I’d feel the fun I felt when I was young.”
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By now, you probably know Bard’s story. He was one of the best relievers in baseball — serving as a setup man to then-Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon — before collapsing down the stretch in 2011, at which point things unraveled.
Bard struggled with significant control problems while flip-flopping between Boston’s rotation and bullpen in 2012. He pitched only one inning in 2013 and hasn’t returned to the majors since, as his erratic command accompanied him as he bounced around the minors with several organizations.
Bard retired in 2018 and started working for the D-Backs in a mentor role. He’s now putting his coaching career on hold, however, as the right-hander signed a minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies in February. He still wants another crack at The Show, this time with a youthful exuberance that’s hard not to admire.
“As I can tell you, the mind is a funny thing that sometimes no one can understand,” Bard told Gammons. “I’m not thinking about what I’m doing being a story. Every time I step on a mound and start to throw, I think how thankful I am to be here. I’m where I want to be. And I’ll be here again next year.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has cast uncertainty over the 2020 Major League Baseball season, so Bard’s comeback attempt currently is on hold. It’s difficult to imagine the situation eating at him too much, though.
Bard has been to the bottom, and yet he’s still fixated on returning to the top.
