Boston Red Sox minor league player Kevin Steen, a right-handed pitcher who was drafted out of Oak Ridge in the ninth round of the Major League Baseball draft in 2014, is still recovering after being critically injured in a car crash in Florida in April, but he is determined to return to baseball, according to a news and information site in Massachusetts.
MassLive.com reported that Steen spent about three months recovering at Lee Memorial Hospital in southwest Florida and has undergone seven surgeries. Steen said he hopes to pitch again in mid-to-late 2018, but he doesn’t want to rush anything and “it is going to take some time,” the website said. (You can read the story here.)
The crash in Florida was reported on April 26. News reports at the time said another car veered over a median and struck the sport utility vehicle that Steen was driving. The striking vehicle went airborne before crashing into Steen’s SUV. That striking vehicle caught fire, and the driver died on the scene.
A YouCaring page set up for donations for medical expenses for Steen said he suffered severe lower body injuries and had surgeries on his hip and both knees before starting rehabilitation.
Steen was in Florida for extended spring training when the crash occurred.
Steen was one of of four right-handers picked by the Red Sox on Day 2 of the draft in June 2014, with only one selection coming straight from high school, the team said in a press release at the time.
Steen also played basketball for the Oak Ridge Wildcats, and he helped lead the team to a state championship game in March 2014, when Oak Ridge finished as state Class AAA runner-up.
Read the MassLive story here.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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