Allison Helps Young Pitchers to Get Chance He Once Had

These days, former pitching sensation Jeff Allison is still involved in the game, but just from the dugout, so to speak.

Allison, 27, is a pitching coach at Extra Innings in Tewksbury, trying to help other up-and-coming pitchers achieve the dream that he self-admittedly threw away nearly a decade ago to alcohol and drugs.

Allison's story over the years has been widely publicized -- he received a $1.85 million signing deal with the Florida Marlins out of high school (he was 16th overall in the Major League Baseball Draft in 2003), but much of that money fed a drug and alcohol addiction, and eventually he hit rock bottom in prison. It's been a long uphill battle to rehabilitation in the years since.

He has been clean since 2006 and now has that date tatooed on his pitching arm. He says he's a changed man.

“I don’t judge the people who are judging me. I almost expect them to be judging me. I don’t hate them for it. I don’t dislike them for it. Everybody is entitled to an opinion. But I’m going to continue to do what I do and say what I say and hope it helps just one person in the process,” he told the Boston Herald's Steve Buckley in a recent interview.

He's no longer even playing with the Marlins farm team, but when Allison isn't helping young pitchers on their form at Extra Innings, he is working with a trainer to get his arm back in shape in hopes of getting another shot at the big leagues.

You can read the Herald interview here.