{"id":13965,"date":"2011-08-22T19:49:37","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T02:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=13965"},"modified":"2011-08-22T19:51:14","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T02:51:14","slug":"from-the-brink-of-death-to-the-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=13965","title":{"rendered":"From the brink of death to the Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Click logo for original news story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>From the Santa Monica Daily Press
\nby Rebecca Asoulin<\/em><\/p>\n

\nDOWNTOWN \u2014 Dave Blackburn, Santa Monica resident and a recent inductee to the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame, tells a \u201cjoke.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day for a month I had to look the grim reaper in the eyes and say I have a hall of fame to get to and you and not any one else is going to stop me,\u201d Blackburn said. <\/p>\n

Of course he adds, it\u2019s not really a joke, but instead for Blackburn, it was his reality for 53 days while he lay in a medically-induced coma. <\/p>\n

On Aug. 26 of last year, traveling with some of his teammates to Prescott, Ariz. for the 40-and-over ASA National Tournament, their vehicle was struck by another car and tore Blackburn apart. <\/p>\n

Blackburn broke 27 bones, including his sternum and pitching arm, had two collapsed lungs, bruised his heart and tore critical nerves in his lower leg. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was touch or go living and dying … the trauma center in Phoenix told me that in 20 years no one had ever come to them that messed up and survived,\u201d Blackburn said. <\/p>\n

But he did. <\/p>\n

Blackburn spent eight months recovering in Phoenix hospitals and nursing homes before returning to Santa Monica. <\/p>\n

However, Blackburn, whose ability to walk was robbed from him by the accident, found himself in another hospital \u2014 Kaiser WLA \u2014 last Monday. <\/p>\n

Blackburn had developed a foot infection and was advised by doctors not to attend the hall of fame induction ceremony in Moline, Ill. and instead undergo an operation. <\/p>\n

The risk was huge \u2014 if the foot infection went untreated they would have to amputate his leg. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was taking a calculated risk, but I wasn\u2019t going to miss [the induction ceremony] unless it was for my funeral,\u201d Blackburn said. <\/p>\n

In the same fashion as he stared down the grim reaper he staunchly told the doctors that he had family and friends and a hall of fame waiting for him. Blackburn signed a medical waiver on the condition that he return early to Los Angeles after the Aug. 14 ceremony. <\/p>\n

Blackburn was operated on last Tuesday and the fate of his leg is still undetermined. <\/p>\n

Blackburn attributes his strength as well as his love for softball to his father, softball legend Ernie Blackburn, who to a young Blackburn was \u201clarger than life.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAs far back as I can remember I remember weekends piling into the car with my brothers, mother and father for my father\u2019s softball games,\u201d Blackburn said.<\/p>\n

Dave Blackburn, who in his career pitched 70 no hitters, just shy of his father\u2019s 99, was inspired by his father\u2019s success, but most of all he was awestruck by the opportunity that jumping into a car with his family allowed him. He was able to see all the Midwest and all of its elite softball players. <\/p>\n

Blackburn left his hometown in Indiana and attended the University of Illinois in Champagne and in 1982 first stepped foot in Southern California as a recruit for the ISC defending world champs. <\/p>\n

His team won the championship again and Blackburn, who had come to love California, stayed. <\/p>\n

However, softball allowed Dave Blackburn to travel around the world from Venezuela to Canada to Israel where Blackburn won several gold medals in the World Maccabiah Games. The Jewish athletic event is held every four years and is much like the Olympics. <\/p>\n

As a player, Dave Blackburn has pitched nearly 1,800 games over the last 33 consecutive summers, and has pitched in 10 International Maccabiah Tournaments. <\/p>\n

Blackburn\u2019s contributions to softball move just beyond those of a player. Blackburn was a pioneer in live streaming ISC tournaments on the Internet, starting with the championship game in 2005. <\/p>\n

His recent induction and his two previous inductions into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and in the Israel Softball Hall of Fame in 2009, as the first American athlete, are due in part to his contributions toward creating a thriving international softball community.<\/p>\n

Appropriately, his induction was streamed live and surrounded by friends and family Dave Blackburn took the podium for his speech. <\/p>\n

Starring at the sky, he said, Dave Blackburn thought of his mother Charlotte who had died at age 78 while he was in the coma last summer. <\/p>\n

He had missed her funeral and the chance, he said, to say goodbye.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told [my mother] in my speech that all her worries that softball didn\u2019t pay the bills were for nothing because today I feel like the richest guy in the world,\u201d he said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Santa Monica Daily Press by Rebecca Asoulin DOWNTOWN \u2014 Dave Blackburn, Santa Monica resident and a recent inductee to the International Softball Congress Hall of Fame, tells a \u201cjoke.\u201d \u201cEvery day for a month I had to look the grim reaper in the eyes and say I have a hall of fame to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13965","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-people","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13965"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13971,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13965\/revisions\/13971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}