When Sacramento State pitcher Mick Joyce was 11 years old, a surgeon and his parents sat him down in a doctor’s office and told him he would have to miss the entire little league season that year. The young Joyce suffered from a congenital heart disorder called aortic valve disease, which caused a valve in Joyce’s heart to leak and his pulmonary valve to balloon to four times the size of the average 11 year old.

To say the least, Joyce was upset; not because he feared the surgery, but because his dream to play professional baseball might be in jeopardy.

“When (Mick) went into the cardiologist’s office, he was actually in his all-star uniform,” Joyce’s mother, Sheri said. “When they told him he was done (playing) and he had to have the surgery, he ripped everything off, threw his hat off and said, ‘I want to have the surgery! I want to have it now!'”

In fact, when Joyce was asked if he had any questions for Dr. Vaughn Starnes, who is considered to be among the nation’s top pediatric heart surgeons, he just had one: “Will I play again?”

At the time, the common medical practice to correct aortic valve disease was to implant an artificial or pig valve.

However, these procedures require children to take blood thinners and return for several surgeries throughout their childhood. These options would have made it nearly impossible for Joyce to have a normal childhood, much less pursue his goal of playing in the big-league.

Searching for other options, the Joyce family traveled from Temecula to Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles to seek the services of Dr. Starnes. Sheri said that a close family friend described Starnes as the “Michael Jordan” of children’s heart surgery.

“We knew that we were putting him in the hands of the best and that it wasn’t going to be a Band-Aid. It was going to be a cure,” Sheri said.

Starnes met with the Joyce family to describe an innovative procedure, called the Ross Procedure, that he was having great success with. The Ross procedure uses the child’s own pulmonary valve to replace the diseased aortic valve.

Then a donor valve is used to replace the absent pulmonary valve. Because the pulmonary valve is the child’s natural valve, it grows normally, eliminating the need to replace it due to the maturation of the body.

After learning that the Ross procedure had a near-perfect success rate and it would allow Joyce to play again, the Joyces were left with no decision at all. This was the right solution for their son.

“We never even thought about it,” Sheri said. “We were so confident that he would be cured and would be like everybody else, so there wasn’t any other option.”

The surgery would take a brutal toll on Mick’s young body. He would have to wait for his sternum to heal before he was able to participate in any physical activity, and he lost a great deal of weight in the process. Following a seven-month battle to physically and mentally recover from the surgery, 12-year-old Mick was back on the baseball field and better than ever.

“He’s overcome quite a bit in his life, and it’s something that motivates him when he competes, and that little extra motivation helps him because the challenges on the field don’t compare to what he overcame in the hospital having surgery,” Joyce’s father, William, said.

The big lefty would go on to have an outstanding career at Chaparral High School in Temecula, drawing the attention of several Division I universities, including Sac State.

Mick accepted a scholarship to come play for the Hornets, but in July of 2003, the summer entering his freshman year at Sac State, he got some dreadful news.

Mick, who is now 6′ 2″ and 220 pounds, would have to undergo a second surgery to replace the donor pulmonary valve that he had out grown.

“Mick’s dream since he could pick up a ball was to play pro ball,” Sheri said. “So when he was 18 and they told him he had out-grown his pulmonary valve and he would need another surgery if he wanted to play at the next level, it was a no-brainer.”

Mick went ahead with the second surgery, but again endured great physical, mental and emotional setbacks.

Having suffered massive weight loss, Mick again went to work to get back on his beloved pitcher’s mound.

Determined to join his Hornet teammates, he hit the gym, working out as often as possible in an attempt to come back in time for his freshman season.

Mick credits the tight bond he has with his parents and his brother Brian, who also plays on the Hornet baseball team, for his rapid and successful recovery.

“My mom and dad are unbelievable. They almost drive me nuts because they’re always here, but I love them to death, and without my family, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” Mick said.

The family is so close that Mick’s parents travel from Temecula to watch nearly all of their son’s games.

In fact, if the Joyces ever miss a game, the team jokes that something terrible must have happened to keep them from being there.

Again, the family was right there to support Mick, but this time he had another motivating factor. It was someone he loved as much as he loved to pitch.

It was his girlfriend Summer Tobias, a senior at Brigham Young University. Mick is now engaged to Tobias and said that he was determined to show her that he would not let the surgery change him.

He would be back to the same old Mick in no time.

“She was the one that made me want to get back faster,” Mick said. “Not just to ease her worries, but to get back and play and hopefully move on and start a life for me and her. That was what made me keep getting up in the morning and work.”

Mick went on to make a complete recovery and was a key contributor for the Hornets in his freshman year. He appeared in 19 games, starting in four of them.

“It’s amazing the things that he’s gone through,” Brian said. “I’ve never seen anyone go through so much, but he always just picks up the pieces.”

Now a senior and the ace of the Hornet pitching staff, Mick takes a moment before each start to squat behind the mound and thank God for the life he has.

Mick said that despite everything he has gone through, he is truly blessed to have the family that he was given and to have a chance to pursue his dream of playing the game he loves for a living.

Mario Martin can be reached at [email protected]