Two years after being drafted in the first round. Max Sapp appears to have a new appreciation for life. After his life threatening bout with Meningitis during the off season and then the return of seizures during spring training. He is working out at home in Orlando and focusing on trying to get ready to return to baseball when the doctors give him the go ahead. The Orlando Sentinel interviewed Sapp on his outlook on life as he works his way back.
On his return to baseball:
“We don’t want to rush him or push him too hard or too soon or too fast,” said Ricky Bennett, the Astros’ director of player development.
On his growth as a person going through this ordeal:
“He’s having to learn patience,” said his mom, Missy Sapp. “Young people aren’t the most patient people in the world, and he’s having to learn it.”
On his physical shape right now:
He cannot control how his brain will respond when he weans himself off Phenobarbital, but he can build up his body. In the hospital, his weight plummeted from 215 pounds to 188 pounds. He now has about 210 pounds on his 6-foot-2 frame and hopes to gain eight more pounds of muscle.
And on his current attitude:
“He’s just a lot more jovial, a lot more talkative and laughs a lot more,” (former high school coach) Holbrook said. “I think he’s found that as much passion as he has for the sport, it’s not the most important thing in the world.”
“I’m a guy who came from dying three times, and now I’m here alive working out,” he said. “So anything’s possible.”