Kornacki: Hendrickson Combines Pre-Med Track with Pitching
5/4/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 4, 2017
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Michael Hendrickson always had an interest in medicine. His father was a physician for the University of Michigan football team and also worked in health services, and Michael saw what doctors experienced at a young age.
However, the talented left-handed pitcher decided to apply for the Ross School of Business as a freshman at Michigan and was accepted as a sophomore. It wasn't until he was having surgery performed on the ulnar nerve in his left arm that a thought beyond having a successful operation occurred.
"I had an ulnar nerve relocation and that was really my first exposure to medicine," said Hendrickson. "I was enamored with it -- even when I was going into the operating room and was meeting all the doctors and seeing how they went about their business. I was fascinated, and that planted the seed of medicine in my head."
Hendrickson, sitting in the Fisher Stadium lobby, leaned back and pointed to the inside of his left elbow.
"Your funny bone is your nerve that's in this crease here," he said. "Mine would snap over my triceps (muscle) and I'd experience numbness in my hand permanently. So, I had numbness throughout my arm and hand. They make a bed for it and move it to the front of your arm so it doesn't snap over it. Then the inflammation went down, and it's 100 percent now."
Hendrickson reached forward and wrapped his knuckles on the table, smiling about having to knock on wood.
That surgery brought about an epiphany for him.
Hendrickson said, "I just really, really felt that medicine was something for me. It was kind of a calling deal."
Hendrickson, a junior who shares the team lead in victories heading into a home weekend series with Ohio State, is a pre-med student who is a biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience major in what he described as a "hybrid" academic gathering.
"It's cool because you get a little of social sciences and a little of the hard sciences," said Hendrickson. "That's nice, and in addition I do the pre-med track.
"But I have no idea what I want to specialize in. I worked in dermatology at the melanoma clinic last summer, and I really liked the oncology portion of that, and I did clinical research for them at the hospital. It was analyzing data on different patients, shadowing in the clinic, and helping out any way I could in the clinic. It was a real good experience."
Hendrickson observed physicians at the University of Michigan Hospital who were required to display sensitive bed-side manners in dealing with cancer patients.
"You see that first-hand and it was really cool to see them work," said Hendrickson. "They really cared and felt like they wanted to help people every day. They were the nicest people in the world, and took me in with open arms.
"It was great to see the patients and interact with them. I was lucky to work with the doctors I did because they were all tremendous. They stayed positive and were rallying (patients) and were really concise in how they relayed information and the communication part of it. I learned so much last summer, and I'm forever grateful for them taking me in and letting me work for them. It's a special place."
Hendrickson just finished a winter semester with 15 credit hours that included two biopsychology courses, a physics class in electricity and magnetism, organic chemistry in structure and activity, and a physics lab.
"Last week I finished exams," he said, "and I'm on the other side now. I made it. You put in the time, but in the end, it's worth it. If you stay organized, it's very manageable."
His father, C. Daniel Hendrickson, currently is running an entire health system as the medical director at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and had influenced his son's appreciation of medicine for as long as Michael, the youngest of three brothers who all played college athletics, can remember.
"I wasn't sold on medicine for my entire life," said Michael. "But as I got older, I began connecting, and always hearing from patients about how good my dad was and how much he cared was special.
"He just had a service mindset his whole life, and he would always come in, even when he didn't have to. He loved taking (emergency) call and most people hated it. But he loved it because he could do something that mattered and help somebody who needed it. That always resonated with me that he became a doctor because he wants to serve, and he wouldn't sacrifice that for anything. That was really special, and something I always admired and appreciated about him."
Michael with his father, C. Daniel, and mother, Marianne
Michael said that desire to serve others as a doctor has become his mission as well.
"If I can be half the doctor my father was," he said, "I'll be very happy."
Hendrickson said he enjoys studying at the Ross Academic Center, which is located directly across from Fisher Stadium.
"I love it there and it's a tremendous resource," said Hendrickson. "It even has study rooms where you can hide out for hours and work. It takes me 10 seconds to walk there and put in two really good hours of study."
Hendrickson is 5-1 with a 4.50 ERA in 11 starts. He's struck out 46 in 52 innings, and opponents are batting .244 against him. Big lefties like Hendrickson, 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, are attractive to major league teams, and he also could be selected in the June amateur draft.
He credited both Wolverines head coach Erik Bakich and pitching coach Sean Kenny with his development since arriving from the powerhouse Saline High program of coach Scott Theisen, who had pitcher Bobby Korecky also attend Michigan before reaching the majors with Minnesota, Toronto and Arizona.
"Coach Bakich has been such a positive life force," said Hendrickson. "He brings the energy every day, and what I've learned most from him is the ability to separate. In my freshman and sophomore years I could think about academics during athletics, but they really taught me how to flip the switch.
"When you come in this facility, you're a baseball player. You can turn it off and that's a great thing. You can relax a little bit, and really focus on the work you need to get done today in athletics. I had to improve a lot on that, and they helped me to do so. They've taught me to be in the present, put the phone away, and great things will happen."
Hendrickson, who developed into a weekend rotation starter this season, has not only refined his fastball (89 to 91 mph), curve and changeup, but added a sharp slider under Kenny's tutelage.
"That slider is my out pitch now," said Hendrickson.
He added that his "attack mentality" and approach of getting ahead in the count on hitters have been ongoing improvements in 2017.
"Coach Kenny is constantly on me about focusing on this pitch," said Hendrickson. "You can pitch yourself out of bad situations in high school, but you can't at this level. So, I just focus on the value of each pitch.
"I think getting hurt helped that, too. You walk out on the mound and you're very grateful to get the chance to play."
He appeared in only three games last year, getting one start, before that numbness up and down the inside of his left arm and hand shut him down.
Hendrickson discovered so much about himself during the surgical process that resulted. He realized he wanted to serve others, follow his father's path, and become a doctor someday.
