JUPITER, Fla. — When he wasn’t on a conference call a year ago discussing and debating labor negotiations to bring Major League Baseball back from the brink of a prolonged work stoppage, Jack Flaherty was privately concerned about a sensation in his pitching arm that ultimately kept him from returning when the games did.
Fast forward 355 days, and there Flaherty was on the mound Wednesday for his first official bullpen session of Cardinals spring training with no sign of the stress from players being locked out or the strain of his shoulder being locked up.
It was, he smiled, “fun.