Wildcat taming his speed

The fist-sized tattoo memorializes Perry's good friend, Jason White, who died in a motorcycle accident when they were students at Marana High School.

Another of Perry's friends fell into a coma after he was involved in a separate motorcycle wreck.

Now a sophomore pitcher on the Arizona baseball team, Perry, 20, loved to ride. He has spent time on quads and dirt bikes since he was in sixth grade.

As a teenager, his parents forbade him from riding. When he planned to buy a motorcycle, they threatened to rescind their offer to buy him a house.

Perry held onto his lifelong love of dirt bikes and motorcycles.

"I've always gotten a kick out of it," he said. "I'm a big thrill guy. I love doing dangerous stuff."

In January, the thrill-seeker side of him jeopardized his promising baseball career and his life when he hopped on a friend's 2007 blue Suzuki — with no helmet — for a fast ride down a residential Marana street.

"You kind of have that mentality (an accident is) not going to happen to you," said Perry.

A witness said the bike hit about 70 mph going east on Sandburg Court near Benet Drive. Perry tried to brake near the end of the street and lost control of the bike. The rear wheel locked up, causing the bike to skid, flip on its right side and crash into a steel fence at the end of the road, according to a Marana police report.

Perry hit a fence post. He and the bike flew through a gate, landing on dirt between the street and Silverbell Road. He was conscious, he said. The report measured the motorcycle skid at 157 feet.

Perry broke his left arm and three vertebrae. His liver was lacerated. As he knelt in the dirt, he thought of baseball and his parents.

"I was just afraid it was going to ruin how I play and whether I was going to play baseball again," he said. "That was what was running through my head the majority of the time."

His parents met him at University Medical Center. Their relief turned to anger.

The accident occurred Jan. 8, two days before the first baseball practice, and Perry was slated to either be a starting pitcher or closer.

Now, almost four months into the season, the UA has a 31-9 record and is ranked 13th.

"We see him in the bed and think, 'OK, he's alive. He's not mangled,'" Perry's dad, Keith, said. "Then you want to strangle him, like, 'What the heck did you do?'"

Perry's mom, Lynne, said she reminded herself he is a kid.

"At one point, I wanted to kick his butt," she said, "but I was so glad he was OK."

As she hugged him at the hospital, tears ran down his face.

A real nightmare

All agree Perry is lucky: He did not need surgery. His non-throwing arm was broken, and the break was clean. The fractured vertebrae in his lower back made movement painful for two weeks, but by six weeks he was running.

Perry's recovery began with two weeks off his feet. He laid on the couch at his parents' house for five nights. Walking was slow and painful.

"It was like watching a 100-year-old man," Lynne Perry said.

During those first two weeks, Perry experienced violent nightmares nearly every night. He dreamed he was kidnapped and tortured by people he did not know. Perry said he had never experienced the dreams before, but they probably were caused by the trauma of the accident.

"(I was) really lucky," Perry said. "I was going about 85 (mph), no helmet. I'm real lucky to not be paralyzed after hitting my back and everything."

After two weeks, he started daily therapy, using bands and light weights to strengthen his arms. He felt a pinching pain in his back when he moved, but it disappeared after five weeks. Six weeks after the accident, he ran on an underwater treadmill. Within another couple of weeks, he was running outside and throwing.

Doctors told him he would miss the first 10 to 12 weeks of the season. He missed the first five weeks, returning three weeks before the Pac-10 season.

"I'm definitely surprised by how fast I've recovered," he said.

Team trainer Bill Savage said Perry, who is 6 feet 4 inches and 200 pounds, was able to make a quick recovery because he was in "incredible" physical shape before the accident.

"Things that would take most people 10, 12, 15 weeks to recover from, they can do in half to three-quarters the amount of time just because of how they're built," Savage said.

Perry is completely recovered, Savage said. He does not foresee Perry suffering from any long-term effects.

"To his credit, his recovery is a result of the work he's put into it."

Making better decisions

Perry made his season debut March 13 at Hawaii-Hilo, throwing 24 pitches in two innings. In his longest outing, he threw 82 pitches in five innings April 7 against Cal. Perry, who is building up strength in his throwing arm, has started on Sundays and owns an 0-1 record and 7.15 ERA. His fastball velocity is back to 90-92 mph.

"It's going kind of rough," he said. "I'm definitely trying to get back to the top where I was."

After the accident, UA coach Andy Lopez scolded Perry for riding without a helmet.

"He's a talented kid," Lopez said. "He has a chance to have a bright future here and even later in baseball. He has a chance to probably pitch in professional baseball. He has to make better decisions."

Asked what he learned from the experience, Perry said, "Don't ride bikes. Don't be stupid."

He was ticketed for exceeding lawful speed, failure to control a vehicle and riding without insurance. Perry said he will not ride again during his baseball career. If he ever rides again, he said he will "most definitely" wear a helmet.

"You like to hope your kids learn from others' mistakes, but they don't," Keith Perry said. "Unfortunately, they learn the hard way."

Tonight

• Who: Arizona at UCLA

• When: 6 p.m.

• Radio: 1290-AM