Chicago — The worst part for Daniel Norris, aside from the post-surgical pain and the four months of arduous physical labor in the oppressive, central Florida heat, was the feeling of being disenfranchised.
Because he wasn’t yet able to drive himself in the early days following groin surgery, he had to stay at a tiny hotel close to the Tigers’ spring training facility in Lakeland. He couldn’t go out at night. It was get up, spend the entire day at the facility doing physical therapy and other rehab-related work, eat and go back to the hotel — rise, rinse and repeat, day after day.