Religion helped Ducks' House to cope

On a Sunday evening in October 2002, J.R. House sat inside the First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., and listened to a sermon given by a former NFL quarterback. For the first time in a month, House said, he forgot about his right arm, which was hanging in a sling.

That arm had been his golden ticket. When he was a high school quarterback, it set national passing records. When he was a baseball prospect, it signed a contract with the Pirates. When he was a minor-league catcher, it helped him win a Most Valuable Player award.

But on that night almost nine years ago, the 22-year-old felt empty and angry. Uncertain about his career after Tommy John surgery, James Rodger House listened to the sermon preached by former Bills and Jets quarterback Frank Reich and realized that not everything relied solely on that arm. "Everything got put into perspective again after that," he said.

House never has regained the promise he held that fall in 2002. He is a journeyman catcher with the Long Island Ducks, a "baseball lifer" resigned to long bus rides and longer periods away from his family.

But bitterness isn't part of House's persona. He is ebullient with spiky brown hair and a 5-10, 200-pound frame. He references religion often and seems at peace with the things that derailed his career.

"As cliche as it is, it really took me losing that for the first time to be humble enough to understand the important things in life," House said. "I was brought down off my high horse."

There was a time when House was so good in baseball and football that he was unsure which sport to pursue. At Nitro (W.Va.) High School, he set national passing records and had scholarship offers from such powerhouses as Tennessee, Georgia and West Virginia. He also was a catching phenom at Seabreeze High School in Ormond Beach, Fla. (House's father owned businesses in both states, and House split the year between both schools.)

The Pirates drafted him in the fifth round in the 1999 amateur draft and House signed, hitting .313 his first pro season. House hit .348 with 23 home runs and 90 RBIs in 420 at-bats for Class A Hickory (N.C.) in 2000, earning league co-MVP honors with future AL MVP Josh Hamilton.

"I used to call him 'ready-for-success,' " said Ducks hitting coach Jay Loviglio, House's manager at Hickory.

"The dude was unbelievable," added Mets reliever D.J. Carrasco, who played with House in 2001.

But after a fairly good year for Double-A Altoona in 2001, House missed three months of the 2002 season with a hernia. In September, House felt his elbow come apart while he attempted to throw out a runner at second.

"I just felt like my elbow went with [the ball]," House said. "And that was it."

On Sept. 10, noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews performed Tommy John surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament, leaving House despondent. "That [arm] was my moneymaker," House said. "It's what I built my dreams on."

A month later, House said a friend steered him to the local Baptist church, where Reich -- who was born in Freeport -- was speaking. "It was the first time I'd heard somebody talk about their love for Jesus that I respected," House said.

House points to that moment as his religious awakening, and that helped him cope with his injury. He rehabbed and made his major-league debut for the Pirates on Sept. 27, 2003. But his arm just wasn't the same. A few weeks after he had rotator-cuff surgery in February 2005, the Pirates released him.

Because he still had college eligibility, House spent the fall of 2005 as the backup quarterback for West Virginia.

In 2006, he returned to baseball and signed a minor-league deal with the Astros. But it was clear he couldn't replicate his earlier success. In 2010, he hit .253 with four homers and 29 RBIs in 225 at-bats for the Mets' Triple-A Buffalo team.

With the Ducks this season, House, 31, is hitting .286 with 10 home runs and 41 RBIs through Friday. He feels healthy and is hopeful that another big-league team will give him a shot.

"That's why I'm away from my family right now," House said. "That's a sacrifice that you make to try to play this game.''

In a recent Ducks home game, House was far from the prospect he once was and far from his wife, Valerie, and 2-year-old daughter, Rilynn, at home in Florida. But he smiled at the 6,000 fans and didn't seem to mind the ice bags strapped to his elbow and shoulder afterward.

"At a very young age, lots of money early on, you don't necessarily understand how fragile success is," House said, "and what it takes to get there."