McHenry Times

At 9 years old, Damon Cruz already has been facing challenges on and off the baseball field.

Cruz, who attends Riverwood Elementary School in McHenry, built up a strong reputation on the diamond this summer by becoming the top-rated baseball player for his class in Illinois. That high point of his young baseball career came about four years after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

“It's definitely been a lot different, but you know and hard kind of,” Cruz told the McHenry Times, but I've gotten used to everything that I really have to do with all my shots and stuff," Cruz said.

However, nothing has stopped Cruz on the diamond. Cruz, who plays for the McHenry Cobras, went 9-6 on the mound this fall, which comes after he turned heads this summer. Cruz and his father, Joe, went to the Baseball Youth National Tryouts on July 28 in Westfield, Indiana.

“He had always asked me the question, how do I compare to some of the better players in my age bracket? And I truly didn't know how to answer that” Joe Cruz told the McHenry Times. “So I said, well, there's one way we can find out, if we take you out and play with the best of them and see how you do.”

At the tryouts, Damon Cruz unleashed his cut fastball and lit up the radar guns with a 54 mph pitch. The average speed of a regular fastball for his age group is 40-50 mph, according to efastball.com, with the average cutter at that age being 4 to 5 mph slower than that range.

After that performance, Baseball Youth rated Damon the No. 1 prospect at his age in Illinois and No. 3 nationally. Next up for Damon will be the Baseball Youth All-American Games Dec. 18-21 in Orlando, Florida.

“He was really excited to see it when I actually showed it to him, and now basically, he's just in that workout mentality to get ready for these games he has coming up in December,” Joe Cruz said.

Damon, who has 79 strikeouts in 36 career innings, also plays third base like his favorite player, Todd Frazier of the Chicago White Sox.

His diabetes does sometimes present challenges to his playing, Damon said. If he has low blood sugar in the middle of an inning, he may have to be replaced until his blood sugar gets back to an acceptable level, he said. Joe said Damon's sugar levels get checked when they get to the park and right before the game.

Damon's diabetes was discovered during a car trip with his mother, when they had to make five bathroom stops for Damon during the 1½-hour drive. Damon's grandfather told his mother that it sounded like a symptom of diabetes. Damon went into the doctor for some tests and was admitted to the emergency room shortly afterward to get his sugar levels stabilized. Damon's parents then had to take 48 hours of classes on how to care for a person with the disease – all the while being concerned for Damon's future.

“It was quite the test,” Joe Cruz said.

However, things have subsided, Joe said. Now, Damon has an insulin pump to help regulate his diabetes and takes about one shot every three days, whereas before, he had to take four separate shots and 8-10 sugar tests a day.

“He's dealing with it excellently right now,” Joe said. “He doesn't let it stop him from doing anything. There's no excuses being made for diabetes.”