Reliever Danny Farquhar visited his Chicago White Sox teammates before their game against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night, entering the clubhouse at Guaranteed Rate Field for the first time since collapsing in the dugout with a brain hemorrhage during a game against Houston last month.
The 31-year-old Farquhar spent about an hour at the ballpark on Tuesday before Chicago hosted the Pirates. Fellow pitcher Miguel Gonzalez says Farquhar was "pretty pumped'' and reliever Nate Jones says the visit "was exciting for everybody.''
"He was like, 'Man, I'm so excited to come back and see you guys and be around you guys,'" Gonzalez said. "It's something special for him to be here. And to go through all of what he did, we're very happy to see him.
"Hopefully he'll be able to come and play baseball again."
Neurosurgeon Dr. Demetrius Lopes said on Monday he expects Farquhar will be able to pitch again but said he won't medically release him to throw in a game this season so he can fully recover.
"You can't place a limit on the size of a man's heart and he has a lot of drive," manager Rick Renteria told reporters Tuesday. "We're just glad that he's out of the hospital now and recovering well."
Farquhar's brain hemorrhage was caused by a ruptured aneurysm on April 20 after he pitched against Houston. He was released from the hospital on Monday.
"I think anything like that sure does give you a lot of perspective," Renteria said. "Everything is relative in terms of its importance, everything has its place of importance and in this particular instance just watching him, these guys were very happy to see him and to listen to him speak to them. You saw everyone smiling -- they were very, very happy to see him."
Gonzalez told the Chicago Sun-Times Farquhar talked about "throwing some live BP soon. That's what he told us.
"We're happy to see him, and it was fun to be around him. He came to his locker and saw his locker. There's really not many words that we can say (what it's like) having him around."