THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608070119
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sports
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 137 lines
HIS FASTBALL still bores in on right-handed hitters, and he can still spot his curve on both sides of the plate.
But these days, Tommy McLemore's best pitch is the one he can make to the next batch of scared, stressed-out plebes spending their days wondering if they really have what it takes to make it at the U.S. Naval Academy. A few words from the rising Naval Academy senior and former Nansemond-Suffolk Academy star and the newcomers realize their experiences aren't so rough after all.
You see, the worst part of McLemore's plebe year wasn't being yelled at and ordered about by some rank-pulling kid who gets to do so just because he got there the year before. It wasn't having to memorize seemingly mindless sets of facts, never sure when the command would come to spit them back out as though the whole spiel is even a distant cousin of common sense. It wasn't even staring at the scale in horror upon learning that the intense Academy physical regimen he'd hoped would produce bulk had actually caused him to lose 10 pounds from an already spindly, 6-4, 175-pound frame.
The worst part of McLemore's plebe year was having to endure all of these things while a ringing sensation assaulted his ears and the world around him spun so fast all he could do is collapse in a heap and wonder, ``Why is this happening to me?''
Several frustrating months - a span that included the majority of his freshman baseball season - and scores of baffled doctors later, McLemore received his answer - vertigo, or sporadic five-minute fits of severe dizziness. But four months later, the symptoms disappeared, almost as mysteriously as they arrived and just in time to head off the medical discharge that would have forced him out of the Academy.
And in the two years since, McLemore has managed to shove all the hardship aside and establish himself as one of the top college pitchers on the East Coast.
A virtual rookie as a sophomore, McLemore went 8-2 for the Midshipmen with an 2.77 ERA, was a second-team All-Patriot League selection and went the nine-inning distance in a 6-2 NCAA play-in championship game that secured Navy's first national tournament berth in nine years.
``I guess I finally woke up to the fact that I was supposedly a pretty good pitcher,'' McLemore said.
He was even better as a junior, logging a 9-6, 2.60 campaign and garnering first-team All-Patriot and All-Northeast Region honors.
``The thing about Tommy is, he's just got a tremendous work ethic,'' said Ron Killmon, McLemore's coach at N-SA. ``He made himself an outstanding player. None of what he's done surprises me.''
But some of it has surprised McLemore, who admits to struggling with his confidence before regaining his command. Of course, an attack of acute dizziness while standing on the mound can do that to a guy.
Although no one knew it at the time, McLemore's troubles can be traced to an Annapolis rifle range incident during his plebe summer of 1994, when McLemore's earplug fell out a split second before an M-16 discharged inches from his left ear. For the next five months, the incident seemed like little more than yet another annoying slice of plebe life. But one day, on his way to a class, McLemore suddenly slumped to the ground, overtaken with the sensation of ``my eyes shaking back and forth in my head.''
``As a plebe, you tend to be kind of dumb about things,'' he said. ``If you're hurt, you're likely to just try to keep going anyway, even though you know you probably should sit down for a while. Well, I tried to keep going. I ended up on a stretcher with one of those collar things around my neck.''
Within minutes, the dizziness went away. Tests concluded everything was normal. And McLemore felt fine - until the next dizzying episode.
Before long, McLemore was making weekly hospital visits, returning each time with assurances that everything checked out. But while the rest of his teammates were getting ready to open the baseball season, McLemore was still trying to figure out what the heck was going on inside his head.
In hindsight, the gunshot incident leading to vertigo seems like the only logical conclusion. But at the time, ``no one had a clue what was causing it.''
When McLemore finally did make his baseball debut, it was with the junior varsity team. By the end of the year, he'd worked his way up to the varsity. But when vertigo struck as he was preparing to warm up in the bullpen, McLemore knew his athletic career would have be put on hold. When coach Bob MacDonald offered him a chance to accompany the team to the NCAA Play-In Tournament at Wright State, McLemore told the coach to make the trip without him.
``I had to go to the hospital to find out what was wrong with me,'' McLemore said.
Seven straight days in the hospital yielded yet another batch of inconclusive results. And then the school year was over, leaving McLemore's clearly defined world littered with a myriad of questions.
Inspired by stories from his Navy-bred grandfather, McLemore had long toyed with the idea of devoting his life to the military. As his academic and athletic talents grew, the Naval Academy became an even more realistic option. Only during his senior year at N-SA, when visits with his older brother, Jimmy, at the University of Virginia gave him a whiff of parties, Cavalier-style, did his commitment waver.
``I knew the Naval Academy wouldn't be nearly as much fun,'' he said.
But then he thought about how hard work, his specialty, tended to be rewarded in the military, and about the security of a job upon graduation. A sour meeting with the Virginia baseball coach sealed the deal. Navy was the place to be.
Even with the problems of his freshman year, McLemore had spent most of his time certain he'd made the right choice. But as he prepared to return to Suffolk - his dizziness rendering him unable to participate in the Academy's summer training program, his morale beaten down by the residue of the worst cheating scandal in the Academy's 149-year history and his appointment clouded by the prospect of a medical discharge should his condition not clear by the end of his first sophomore semester - he no longer felt so sure.
``To tell the truth, I wasn't really sure about anything,'' he said.
But his return to Suffolk proved fortuitous on two fronts. First, a visit to Dr. Parker Cross in Norfolk led to the first real break in McLemore's dizziness mystery. When told of the gunshot incident, Cross postulated vertigo as a result of inner-ear damage. Navy doctors quickly scrapped the three other possibilities they were considering, concentrated their treatment and gradually began seeing results. Since last October, McLemore has been vertigo-free.
And since he was excused from the summer military routine, McLemore was able to resharpen his baseball skills. He was an all-star for a Portsmouth Big League team and led his squad to the state title.
More importantly, when the school year returned, McLemore was sharp. That fall, he earned the team's most improved pitcher award. When the team started back in the winter, a robust, 200-pound McLemore was No. 3 in the starting rotation.
``It's kind of weird how things worked out, but I'm not complaining,'' he said. ``Ever since I was a little kid, professional baseball's always been sort of a dream, but I really just wanted to have some fun. These last two years, baseball's been fun again.''
Two weeks ago, McLemore, 20, returned to Suffolk again, this time after shepherding 80 plebes of the Class of 2000 through their initial summer training. Given the unique circumstances surrounding his own Academy debut, he brought a special understanding to his leadership role. But that didn't stop him from demanding his plebes keep up with the Academy's energized curriculum.
To the plebes, the demands seemed to come at them at a nonstop pace. A frantic pace.
Sure hope none of them termed it a dizzying pace. ILLUSTRATION: File photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Tommy McLemore is one of the top college pitchers on the East Coast.
McLemore by CNB