VISALIA -- It's been seven years since three surgeries removed Adam Pettyjohn's colon, 65 pounds of weight, pints of blood, all energy and, temporarily, his ability to walk and talk.
It's been 11 years and seven professional organizations since the left-hander from Fresno State threw his first pitch for money.
Yet here the 32-year-old sits in his Spanish-style home, the striking brunette wife, Deanna, to his right; the husky 1 1/2-year-old son, Truett, controlling toy cars on the carpet in front; Buddy, the 19-pound Maine Coon cat, sprawled conspicuously to his left; and, somehow, the will to pack them all and extend a baseball journey with so little hope.
"I know I can still pitch," Pettyjohn says.
He's 6-feet-3, 205 pounds, healthy and appearing much like the same athlete who pitched 15 complete games and struck out 322 from 1996-98 at Fresno State, which inducted him into its baseball Wall of Fame on Thursday night.
Ex-Fresno State pitcher Adam Pettyjohn greets Sue Holt of Visalia on Thursday at the Fresno State baseball Wall of Fame dinner. As a 32-year-old veteran of the game, he says, "I still have the desire to play."
But he made that appearance at Pardini's without a pro contract, merely the latest in an annual series of unnerving wait-and-see games that have shipped him and his wife to Pennsylvania, Texas, three cities in California (including Fresno), Tennessee, Kentucky and New York the past seven seasons.
Now the Pettyjohn traveling show has grown, counting Truett and Buddy, the long-haired, 3-year-old male who travels via plane and car unfazed.
And while Truett has quickly taken to the ballpark and Buddy has marveled any who have seen him -- many of whom have asked to take him home -- Pettyjohn is feeling an eroding tolerance to the transient lifestyle.
"I still have the desire to play," he says, "but each year it gets a little more difficult, bringing the family into it. It gets more tedious and more stressful with all the packing and going across country. Every road trip takes away a little piece of that love for baseball. When you're 22 or 23, it's, 'Hey, let's go.' But, at 32, priorities have kind of changed."
That said, Pettyjohn believes a return to the major leagues is possible. He's been there twice, albeit briefly, with his original organization, Detroit, in 2001 and Cincinnati in 2008.
And if that return to the top with the Reds defines his legacy, he can live with it-- especially after his recovery from the illness that threatened his life to play nine more years of baseball.
"To be back on a big-league mound, facing the best competition in the world, to know how I got there and what I went through is pretty satisfying," he says.
The Pettyjohns say their Christian faith has been their driving force, not the goal of making the major leagues.
"God has opened a lot of doors," he says.
Those doors remained ajar, somehow, after 17 combined hours of three surgical procedures to treat ulcerative colitis -- a pre-cancerous disease that causes inflammation of the colon -- in March, June and September 2002 dropped him to 135 pounds.
He weighed 150 -- so depleted that he was unrecognizable to some -- when he reported to Detroit's spring training in March 2003. But a finesse pitcher never dependent on velocity in the first place had lost 10 mph to fall below 80.
That began a four-year process to restore pitching arm strength. And when it returned, Pettyjohn excelled at the Triple-A level.
In 2007, he was named the Pacific Coast League's co-Pitcher of the Year for Nashville of the Milwaukee Brewers' organization.
And, in 2008, he went 15-8 for Louisville of the Cincinnati Reds' organization to earn a late-season major league promotion.
But it appears time and odds are catching up. And Pettyjohn doesn't deny he's beaten them: "Just the pure percentages would say I was done five or six years ago."
He was referring not only to the illness, but also to the fact only he, former Fresno State teammate Jeff Weaver and Brandon Inge are still playing professionally among the 52 players drafted by Detroit in 2001.
This season, Pettyjohn went 1-6 with a 4.68 ERA for Louisville before being released and then signed by New York Mets Triple-A franchise Buffalo, where he went 3-5 with a 3.56.
All along, Pettyjohn has signed one-year, minor-league, free-agent contracts. But he can't say another is forthcoming: "I realize the window for me playing ball gets smaller every day."
Yet the Exeter High graduate holds onto the game, reflective in a worn baseball lying on the floor, a few feet from Truett.
And then there's Deanna, who also refuses to let go.
"I never want Adam to look back and be like, 'Wow, I should have played another year,' " the real estate agent says. "My career will always be here. I want him to whole-heartedly be done when he's done.
"We're in it together, no matter where it is. I'll live in a cardboard box if I have to. I'll support him to the end."
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