Jon Mungle Article

[Greenhead22]

July 12, 2005

MSU outfielder on knee injury: 'I don't look back'

By Ian R. Rapoport
irapopor@clarionledger.com

STARKVILLE — The first time Jon Mungle tore his knee apart, his rehabilitation was slow. The Mississippi State University outfielder simply thought it was normal.

Everyone told him it would be tough, that because he ripped nearly every part of his knee up, the pain and the weakness weren't out of the ordinary. And even when he required more surgery eight months later to fix shredded cartilage, he didn't flinch.

"I thought it was just part of it," said Mungle, a fifth-year senior from Germantown, Tenn. "It hurt a lot. It swelled up all the time. I had to get it drained a lot."

Only when he received a second opinion more than a year after he first injured his left knee did Mungle find out the problem: He had re-torn his anterior cruciate ligament.

That meant surgery — again — and a missed baseball season — again — and a year of rehab — again.

Roughly a 1 1/2 years and three knee operations later, Mungle has a new perspective on his fate.

"The first time, I just wanted to come back as fast as possible for baseball," said Mungle, who is two summer classes away from graduation. "Now I'm more set on my classes, my internship (with the MSU strength and conditioning staff), and I'll just see where baseball goes."

After taking a redshirt year as a freshman, Mungle started 49 games, hit .341 the first season and earned honorable mention All-American status by Louisville Slugger. He started all but two games as a sophomore, hitting .276 in the SEC and getting drafted by Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers.

He turned the contract offer down and returned for 2004 with high expectations.

"To have Jon Mungle come back," MSU coach Ron Polk said at a news conference prior to the 2004 season, "is very important to this ball club."

The team didn't get to realize his contribution. Mungle was rounding second during the sixth game, stopped short, and fell in pain. He tore three ligaments in his knee — including the ACL, which is considered the most serious — and his meniscus.

Mississippi State's Dr. Rusty Linton performed the surgery three days later. It took six weeks for him to get full range of motion, and after three months, he began running. He spent the summer jogging and lifting weights and was ready to begin fall baseball — after turning down another draft offer from Major League baseball.

"During an October game, I was in the outfield, trying to cut a ball off, I stepped to throw, and I twisted it again," said Mungle. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging test revealed only cartilage damage.

"That's what I thought, at least," added Mungle, who had arthroscopic surgery.

Two surgeries down, Mungle, the 6-foot, 205-pound lefty batter, continued his rehabilitation. His knee hurt, he recalled. It swelled; he kept getting shots, all of which he thought was normal.

Finally, nearly a year since his original operation, Mungle went for a run. But instead of improvement, he found he had trouble stopping. It took seven steps for him to do so. And it never stopped hurting.

"It was then that I knew something else was wrong," said Mungle, who nevertheless continued to work out.

Still, the season was about to begin, and it appeared he would return to contribute, as Polk touted the "four experienced outfielders" who would play, including Mungle.

His knee strength was still at 68 percent (instead of the needed 80), and it hadn't improved by the time the Bulldogs traveled to Arizona on March 11. He decided to get a second opinion in Memphis.

"I found out my knee was totally unhealthy," Mungle said. "It was re-torn. It was like, even if I'm not going to play baseball anymore, I wouldn't be able to do much on it in 10 years, anyway."

Mungle missed 2005, too, but three months after his third surgery, his rehab is considerably different from how it was the first time.

"Compared to the first one, this was nothing," Mungle said. "I'm three months post-op now, and it's better than it was at eight months last time."

Mungle doesn't know if he'll ever play baseball again. But he said he doesn't regret turning down the Major Leagues, and he doesn't regret the struggles of the past two years.

"If I had (left MSU), I wouldn't be close to my degree," he said. "I could've gotten hurt playing professionally, too. I don't look back and wish I'd done anything differently."