Max Scherzer may just be ageless. Despite having pitched in the Major League since 2008, and taken the mound for 4 teams, Scherzer is showing no signs of slowing down. His average fastball pace is only marginally down from his debut season and his experience all the more for it. Starting the 2022 campaign aged 37, Scherzer is preparing for a World Series bid with the Mets. Revealing his secrets to his seemingly endless dominance of the mound, Scherzer spoke about several measures he had undertaken; from work in the off-season to injury recovery. Including one possibly scary story that almost had him quit the game when he was aged 21.

In a recent interview with the Athletic, Scherzer spoke about his upcoming stint with the Mets and how he has dealt with injury in the past. When asked about how he straddled the line in between what he played through and what he could not, Scherzer opened up about how he has made his decisions so far.

He said that his marker is when he can tell that he is getting through the baseball. Speaking to several incidences when he has managed the same despite being injured, Scherzer added that if he can get through the baseball, he can pitch. Said Scherzer, “That’s my line in the sand: If I feel like I can get through the baseball, I’m going to take the ball.”

However, this almost led to Scherzer’s career-ending before it had even truly started. Going back to his collegiate career at Missouri, Scherzer recounted a scary experience he had when he was there.

Scherzer recounts the story of his near miss

Scherzer spoke about a time when he was in college and had accidentally shut the door on his finger. He missed the first start of the season and about 10 days of healing, but he was back. He said that the only residual vestige of the injury was a pain in his fingertip. “I realized I could throw the baseball; it was just pain on my fingertip. And if it’s just pain on my fingertip, I can go,” said Scherzer.

Working past the pain barrier, Scherzer decided to pitch anyway; putting aside the pain in his fingertip and ignoring it for large parts. Keep in mind this seems relatively minor to Scherzer at the time; but after only 2 starts pitching with a compromised finger, he developed bicep tendonitis. Said Scherzer, “I had a major scare.”

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Pitching in the state that Scherzer had actually compromised on his shoulder, possibly even in the long term. “I almost blew out my shoulder because of doing that,” he added.

Max Scherzer and his lessons from the past

He is still dealing with ramifications of that injury even today. ” If you take an MRI of my shoulder, you can still see this tiny speck of my labrum from that one time I pitched at Mizzou with an injured finger,” Scherzer added.

Thankfully, Scherzer could make it past the injury; and he has grown to be a titan of the game since. But he will always remember that day in college.” I got a wake-up call at 21 years old about how dangerous it can be if you’re trying to pitch through an injury and develop bicep tendinitis because of that. I’ll never forget that,” he added.

Scherzer, though, is unique in that respect. His injury awareness is reportedly supreme. A tremendous advantage at this stage in his career, Scherzer is well versed with his body and its ailments. “What separates him from almost anybody is that he knows his body as well or better than anyone I’ve ever been around,” Nationals president of baseball operations, Mike Rizzo, told the Athletic.