Not a day passes for Georgia catcher Mason Meadows when he doesn’t wake up feeling blessed.
As well he should.
Last year, the Bulldog junior suffered an injury that can only be described as freakish. He fouled a ball that somehow found its way through the flap and the rim of his batting helmet, striking his right eye, in a March 24 game against LSU.
The result: a facial fracture that forced him to miss nine games before returning to action April 9.
It was an injury even baseball veterans such as Bulldog head coach Scott Stricklin had never seen before. While it’s commonplace for batters to foul a ball off the dirt and into any number of body parts, Meadows' foul ball careened directly off the bat and into the right side of his face.
Fortunately, as Meadows will tell you, God is the best physician of all. As Georgia gets ready for its season-opener Friday against Richmond, the Roswell native is anxious to put last year’s scare behind him and focus on what he hopes will be a fruitful 2020 campaign.
“Faith is a big part of my life, and I just feel blessed to be here every day,” Meadows said. “I get to come out here and do what I love, and a lot of people don’t get that chance. I’m ecstatic to be out here, whether it’s cold, raining, snowing or sleeting, beautiful weather, 75 degrees—I’m just excited to be here.”
Meadows credits his faith for getting him through what he admitted were some very tough times.
“It was just another chapter in the book. I think with the story that’s happened in my life, whether it’s my brother passing away from a young age, the hard struggle that I had getting here, going through that redshirt year, little injuries along the way—and then that happened last year,” Meadows said. “I just worked hard, just put my head down through a lot. The Lord has gotten me through a lot. He’s helped me all the way. But determination, grit, and grind are the two things that have really pushed me forward.
“I get to look back on that now and, let's say I have a bad day, something like I haven’t played or whatever—I can look back and say I’ve been through worse. That’s the thing I keep in the back of my mind.”
For Stricklin, the incident involving Meadows brought back nightmare images of when two of his former players at Kent State suffered eye injuries and were never able to play again.
“My first concern was that his (Meadows) eye would be damaged,” Stricklin said. “We didn’t know until 24 hours after the swelling went down, and it was unbelievable how quick he bounced back. I still don’t think he was all the way there, although he was cleared to play. It’s good to see him now, everything. As we say, the marbles are all back in the jar. He’s ready to go.”
Considering one can make an argument for Meadows being one of the top defensive catchers in the SEC, that’s big news for the Bulldogs.
Last year, Meadows fielded .997 with 323 putouts, 41 assists, and just one error in 365 chances. He also threw out an amazing 55 percent (11-for-20) of would-be base-runners.
Throughout his recovery, he received well-wishes from all over, including Atlanta Braves catcher Tyler Flowers, along with the family of San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, who like Meadows’ family, hails originally from Lee County in South Georgia.
“It’s a fraternity among catchers, so it was kind of cool to get to see that in play,” said Meadows, who reflected on a chance meeting with a stranger in Nashville early last September prior to Georgia’s football season-opener with Vanderbilt.
“I’m walking down the street, hanging out by the pool before the game, and this guy walked up and said, ‘Hey, your grandfather in Jacksonville, Fla., actually, asked me to pray for you. That’s how I knew who you were,’” Meadows said. “It was just a random guy, just a guy who was in my grandfather’s church. I thought that was pretty cool.”
His is a story Meadows said he’s been happy to share, having spoken about it during various Bible studies, as well as at an elementary school back home in Roswell.
Stricklin’s just glad this story had a happy ending.
“The thousands and thousands of at-bats I’ve seen, I’ve never seen it,” Stricklin said. “I hope I never see it again.”
