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There was a time after his back injury when Andrew Zarzour wondered if he would even walk again, let alone pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies. He just crashed on his couch for days at a time and prayed that somehow the searing pain would go away.
He was so medicated at one point that he actually dreamed/hallucinated about his good friend Josh Hamilton tearing up his ankle in a game against the Phillies and being lost for the season. That never really happened, of course, and Hamilton batted a cool .379 during a full season in LA. He also dreamed that the Dodgers once again choked in the playoffs, and of course that didn't happen either. Hamilton and the Dodgers rolled to another world title, beating the Cleveland Indians in six games. Announcers kept talking about Hamilton, who is set to become a free agent in the off-season, possibly fetching one of the highest salaries in MLB history.
It was probably this playoff run by LA that inspired Zarzour during his rehab. He remembered the experience of being on another Dodgers' team that won it all, and he was as intent as ever on getting that feeling back with his new team.
By the time October and November rolled around, everyone was amazed at how much progress Zarzour had made on his road to recovery.
"We patched you up pretty good," doctors told him. "You should be as good as new by the time Spring Training rolls around again. Just don't do anything stupid between now and then that would set your progress back..."
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