The right-handed hurler is Oklahoma State’s ace, and what he’s got up his sleeve is a scar.

The surgery was pioneered by Dr. Frank Jobe in the 1970s and named after his most famous patient, Los Angeles lefthander Tommy John. John went under the knife midseason in 1974 and made an unexpected Major League comeback in 1976, winning 10 games for the Dodgers. More than half of John’s 288 career wins came post-surgery, and he retired in 1989 a three-time All-Star.

Prior to the procedure, damage to the UCL (the main elbow ligament connecting the humerus and ulna) was a careerender, particularly for pitchers. Dr. Jobe’s solution was to take a donor tendon (ideally harvested from the patient’s opposite forearm) and literally lace it through holes drilled in the bones to create a figure-eight pattern. The result is a restabilized elbow, as strong — if not stronger — than before.

Injured arms now had hope, and “Tommy John” was its name.

In the spring of 2011, Hursh was a promising pitcher in the Cowboys’ bullpen. He saw limited duty on the mound as a frosh (throwing only 29.2 innings in 10 appearances), but showed signs of the potential that made him a 6th round MLB draft pick out of Trinity Christian Academy (Carollton, Texas) a year earlier.

After a summer honing his skills for the Santa Barbara Foresters of the California Collegiate League, Hursh was expected to be a regular in the OSU rotation as a sophomore.

“I was playing out in Santa Barbara, and my arm felt great that day,” Hursh recalls. “After one particular pitch I felt a little tweak in my elbow, but I shook it off. The very next pitch I felt a pop. I knew at that point I did something serious to my elbow and immediately walked off the mound.”

An MRI confirmed the worst.

“I talked to the team doctors, and they said I’d probably need to go ahead and get surgery.”

In the nearly four decades since Tommy John had “Tommy John,” the procedure has become almost commonplace, and thousands of baseball careers have been extended. As many as 10 percent of current professional pitchers bear the trademark scar, as do a number of Hursh’s own teammates.

“We have a lot of those scars on our squad, that’s for sure,” he says. “Randy McCurry. Mark Robinette. Phillip Wilson. Rick Stover, a catcher.”

The post-op rehabilitation process is long (up to a year or more), but the surgery’s success rate was encouraging to Hursh.

“I just thought of it as a second chance for me,” he says. “The doctors do it in their sleep these days. My surgery only took like 45 minutes. I knew if I rehabbed and did my throwing program and everything, I could come back stronger.”

Back in Stillwater, John Stemm serves as OSU’s director of athletic training and rehabilitation. The first thing Stemm tells his student-athletes is they can’t pick up a ball for six months.

“This might be the first time since they were probably 11 or 12 that they haven’t thrown a baseball for six months,” Stemm says. “Kids these days are becoming onesport athletes. Some throw year-round. That’s why we’re seeing a huge increase in this number of these injuries, even at younger ages. It’s just a lot of throwing.”

Several years ago, a panel of physicians studied the success rate of Tommy John surgery, Stemm says. Their conclusion was unanimous.

“They all said the reason why there are failures is that people do not stick to the rehab program. They looked at Major League guys who didn’t get back and found that they may have tried to come back too soon or started throwing too quickly. They didn’t do things by the book.

“The doctors all have their own protocol,” he adds, “So Jason’s doc came up and said, ‘This is what I like to follow,’ and we just went from there. I like to do certain things, and we just married that together.”

Hursh says it helped to have a teammate at his side while going through the rigors of rehab.

“Mark (Robinette) had the surgery three days after me, so we were pretty much on the same page throughout all of it. It definitely helps having someone right there with you, to make sure you’re accountable and doing all your reps. We just followed the program and did what it said. We got in the weight room and got after it.”

“They would come to rehab four times a week,” Stemm says. “The other days they are lifting, working on abdominal strength, working on legs, those kind of things. Once they’re cleared to start running, they start working on conditioning.”

Stemm says the key to a strong throwing arm starts at the shoulder.

“There are some mechanical things that certainly play a role in elbow injuries,” Stemm says. “In the throwing motion, the arm is kind of like a whip. All your force and all your torque come from your legs and your core. Your arm is just going along for the ride, and the shoulder’s only job is to slow itself down as it throws. Everything else is generated from what we call ‘beach muscles.’ If you’re not using those big muscles, you tend to use your shoulder more. What ends up happening is your shoulder gets tired. Now you drop your elbow because your rotator cuff is getting tired or weak or inflamed, and that puts your elbow at risk.

“In my experience, every kid that comes in with elbow problems has shoulder weakness,” he adds. “Hursh is a classic example.”

“Obviously I was doing something wrong beforehand that ended up with me injuring myself,” Hursh admits. “So I just focused on the proper throwing mechanics and kind of learned how to throw again. I really focused on keeping my shoulder up high and using proper form.”

Once he was cleared to throw, Hursh was still brought along slowly.

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“In our return-to-throwing program, they usually start at 45 feet, throwing at about 80 percent,” Stemm says. “We play catch. I describe it as being in the backyard throwing with your dad. We’d do 25 throws and take a break and then do 25 more. That’s day one. The whole thing is a 16-step process. In order for them to go to the next step — 60 feet, 90 feet — they have to have 80 percent of the throws inside the box, hip to shoulder. As the distance increases, we still want them to be able to control the baseball.

“People have to understand it’s a process,” Stemm adds. “It takes some time, but the athletes that are patient and do what they’re supposed to do have tremendous success here. Jason is a great kid and he works hard.”

He also throws hard, Stemm says, even when playing catch in the backyard.

“He can wing it.”

At that point, it was time for Stemm to put Hursh’s health in the capable hands of graduate assistant Eli Williams, athletic trainer for baseball. Assistant coach Rob Walton, a standout OSU pitcher from 1983-86, arrived last summer as part of Josh Holliday’s new staff.

“I didn’t get to be here through the rehab process, but Eli has done a nice job making sure all of our guys were doing the things necessary to stay healthy,” Walton says. “The elbows aren’t a big concern for me, but when guys are sitting out, that’s when you worry about them, because mentally they’re not competing. I think it’s more of a mental anguish than it is a physical one.

“When a guy comes off an injury, there’s always some doubt that comes into play,” he adds. “But there’s been so much coverage of Tommy John over the past several years, knowing so many guys have had it and come back, I think it alleviated much of the pressure. Those first times they get to throw a ball and it’s free and easy and they don’t feel anything, their trust starts to come back, and they can start getting back into a normal workload.”

It’s the journey back to the mound, and there are no shortcuts.

“It kind of takes a toll on you because you’ve played this game your whole life,” Hursh says. “They say you can’t throw or anything, but you’ve still got to practice every day and see all your teammates playing and getting better. You wish you could be out there, but at the same time, you don’t want to cheat it, because you don’t want to mess it up. You just have to dig deep and find that inner will and get after it once you’re released.”

The extra effort has been worth it, Hursh says.

“Honestly, it probably benefited me more in my career. I feel stronger than ever. It’s a great feeling of satisfaction, knowing that all

The early season stats testify to that. Through his first six starts, Hursh had a 3-0 record with a 1.23 earned run average.

Despite Hursh’s relative lack of experience, Walton is relying on the redshirt sophomore to be the leader of the Cowboy rotation.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of returning arms,” Walton says, “so he’s got to take on a role that he might not necessarily be in. Obviously you like your Friday night guy to have experience, but so far, he’s competed very well. It’s still pretty new for him, but he’s understanding how to get hitters out. He’s understanding the value of getting ahead in the count early.”

Hursh has embraced the role as the Pokes’ No. 1 starter.

“It’s nice to know that you get the first game to start the series and hopefully get your team off on a good foot and get a game in the win column,” he says. “It’s a big responsibility to have, and it’s a great privilege.”

With a growing number of m ajor league scouts in attendance at Allie p. r eynolds stadium for each of his appearances, radar guns consistently clock his fastball in the mid-to-upper 90s . But it’s not just his velocity that turns heads. Walton says Hursh is a more complete pitcher now.

“He had trouble throwing strikes as a freshman. That was kind of the M.O. He’s always had a good arm, but now he’s commanding his stuff. He has late movement on his fastball. For him it’s about being able to repeat the locations, being able to set up hitters.

“Jason was always a kid who had a good arm, but pitchability was an issue for him as far as being a strike thrower. Really the credit goes to Jason. He’s cleaned up his delivery, and he’s worked hard, week-in and week-out.

Walton worked with Hursh in the fall to add some new weapons to his arsenal.

“He really didn’t have a breaking ball, so we got him a slider going. That’s becoming a really good pitch, and he’s developed a changeup to go along with it. Now he’s got a legitimate three-pitch mix. In the beginning he could only throw one pitch around the zone. Now he’s throwing three pitches for strikes.”

“I just try to hit my spots and let my stuff work,” Hursh says. “As a starter, you’re not trying to strike out every guy. You want to be out there for as many innings as you can. If you punch a lot of guys, it’s nice. But if you pitch to contact and throw one pitch to a guy and get an easy out, that’s great too. If I’m getting ground ball outs and cruising through the game, that’s fine with me.

“I just want to keep improving,” he adds, “keep learning a lot about myself with each start, keep getting better and give my team a chance to win. I haven’t had a lot of experience in college, and I really only threw my senior year in high school, so I’m still learning the game, still learning how to pitch. I’m only a sophomore so I could be here a while. It’s been awesome with the coaches so far. Coach Walton has helped me tremendously.”

“Jason just continues to grow each week,” Walton says. “The sky’s the limit for this kid. I think he’s got a chance to pitch in the big leagues at some point, but right now I think he’s just embarking on the beginning of how to learn how to pitch. His upside is unlimited.”