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Tournaments  | Story | 5/31/2021

Tener Back on the Bump for East Cobb

Matthew Welsh
Photo: Luke Tener (Tori Heck, Perfect Game)
CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Nearly a year ago to the day, Luke Tener laid alongside the road, surrounded by a mess of twisted metal and fractured glass, the smell of burned rubber in the air. Tener had just experienced a car accident that nearly claimed his life.

Once removed from the wreckage, and following initial medical assessments, it wasn’t clear whether Tener would ever walk again, let alone play baseball. Practically the entire left side of his body had been impacted from head to toe. But fast-forward to East Cobb Astros 17u Navy’s game on Sunday in the Perfect Game Southeast Memorial Day Classic, and Tener was handed the ball to start for the first time since the incident.



Although his first time back in a game, for Tener himself, there was never a doubt that he’d see the field again.

“I never thought that I wouldn’t play again,” said Tener. “The doctors just never told me that there was a chance of that, so I just always believed that I would keep playing.”

And in his return, Tener registered his first strikeout of the season, en route to a 10-9 win for the Astros. There wasn’t any ‘going easy’ or ‘feeling sorry for himself’; it was just genuine pitcher-batter competition.

“It definitely felt strange, but it’s still the same. Throwing to the catcher, that’s all it is,” said Tener. “I wish I could have done better, but it was really fun to be out there.”

The path to returning to the mound was no easy task for the junior lefty, but Tener is not one to shy away from a challenge. He described the hours and hours of physical therapy required to simply prepare him for the simple movements of everyday life. Re-learning baseball mechanics, and polishing those to the extent needed to play, was an additional challenge.

“I just had to work hard and have the trust that I was going to get back to where I was, and to remember how fun it was to play,” Tener said.

Behind the scenes and along for his journey were Tener’s parents. Surely, for any parent, to see your child in danger induces a level of trauma unmatched to almost any other circumstance, but to see them overcome adversity is priceless.

For Matt Tener and Sharon Baldwin, belief in their son never wavered, and in response to their support, neither did Luke’s end goal: stepping foot onto a field again.

“Obviously right when the wreck happened, I wanted to make sure he lived because it was a pretty serious accident,” said Baldwin. “Pretty much his whole left side was messed up, not just his shoulder, feet, legs, everything. But he kept a good attitude through it all.”

Even in the immediate aftermath of the accident, Tener’s demeanor was reassuring, almost calming, like he knew he had had a hill to climb yet was ready for the push. From that point on, Baldwin knew Luke would fight to gain even the smallest semblance of his former self.

“It was really scary. I didn’t realize that it was as serious as it was,” Baldwin said. “I thought maybe he hit somebody and they’re late to work. And as I’m driving up on it, I see the fire trucks, ambulance and everything, and he’s strapped to the stretcher and his face is purple. He’s yelling ‘Mama I’m okay, Mama I’m okay,’ but he wasn’t okay, clearly.”

Like any injury, healing takes time, but the Pope High School enrollee would have to endure the stress associated with several surgeries to repair structural damage to his body. At one point, Tener’s movement was even constrained to that only capable in a wheelchair.

That transformation made the image of Tener’s sweeping side-arm fastball even more memorable on Sunday afternoon. The fact that in under 12 months, Tener was competing in a Perfect Game event that features some of the nation’s top talent, is objectively impressive.

Through it all, that feat was never lost on Matt, Tener’s father.

“Today, [my emotions] were all over the map. Seeing him walking out there today, I was almost crying my eyes out,” said Matt Tener. “Mentally, just the fact that he’s gone through so much, and how he’s faced it, taking it head-on, I don’t know of somebody who has had to endure what he has had to endure for an entire year. So, I told him over and over that I used to think that I was kind of tough, but it’s absolutely nothing compared to what he’s done.”

Putting aside box scores and wins and losses, Tener is just grateful for the opportunity to return to baseball and to the East Cobb program. The team, the field, the dugout. Everything about the game cultivated a reason for Tener to push for a return.

“It means a lot, just so that I can play with my boys and get out there on the field,” Tener said when asked of what this journey has meant for his personal growth. “The best part is just being back out here with my friends.”

Among its most impassioned players, the sport of baseball is more than just a game. Baseball can serve as many things, but for Tener, a lust to taste the competition that only baseball seems to bring, has been a guiding light on his road to recovery.

Even at his darkest moment, when all could have been lost, that light never faded.

“I’d love do that,” Tener said when asked if his sights are still set on a baseball career at the next level. “I just want to play baseball as long as I can.”
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