Touch your thumb to your pinky finger, and look down at the inside of your wrist.

See that tendon that sticks out right there in the middle? Maybe you don't. Some people have them, and some people don't. Kaleb Davis has that tendon, and it very well could save his baseball career.

That tendon is called Palmaris Longus, and the one Davis had in his right wrist isn't there anymore. It's still around, it just moved up in the world, relocated to his elbow where it was woven in a figure eight around his torn Ulnar Collateral Ligament with the hope that it will graph and grow into one with the damaged area. In sports, it's known as Tommy John surgery, named after the former Major League Baseball pitcher. In medicine, it's simply Ulnar Collateral Ligament Reconstruction.

Davis underwent the procedure six weeks ago, and Wednesday he sat at a large table, touching his thumb to his pinky. The ridge is gone. In it's place are three bruises, each one the reminder of two stitches he had to take to close his forearm up. On his elbow is his new-found trademark, a zipper-like scar that is the Tommy John tip-off to just about everyone who has ever stepped on a pitcher's mound.

"When people say they hit their funny bones, when they bang their elbows, that's the UCL," Davis said. "It was just a couple of days ago that my pinky stopped tingling because it's really sensitive. It's rough."

Rough? That's probably not the right wording. For so long, Davis' home has been a baseball field. Actually, it's not his home. He doesn't sleep there at night, but the field is right out the backdoor. When he was seven, his dad got some friends together and built a diamond there. The finished product is pretty nice. It's got an authentic grass infield, and is so nice, in fact, that when Davis played for the Cameron Colts the team had a game there once. And, he has almost always had the strongest arm on his teams -- he started playing around the age of four, and when he was in t-ball, he had to play third base because they had to move him back from first because he gunned it over there too hard for the other kids to handle -- so, as he progressed in the game his dad added a bullpen to the family's facility.

It was all any kid could want, and it was fuel to the flames of a passion that burned hot. Kaleb Davis wanted to be a big leaguer, but first he wanted to go to college. He wanted to be a Clemson Tiger, and it looked like that dream was going to become a reality as he headed into his junior season at Calhoun Academy. By then, little Kaleb Davis wasn't so little anymore. He was tall and lanky, and he was still bringing the heat. His fastball had topped out at 91 mph. Today, he's a 6-foot-4-inch tall dead ringer for a young Jeff Weaver, but he's no Clemson Tiger -- not even close. Those dreams -- although he didn't know it then -- came crashing down around him on the pitcher's mound on the Orangeburg Prep Indian baseball field.

"It was my third start of my junior year," Davis said. "And, I remember the exact pitch. It was the fourth pitch. I threw it, and it felt like my elbow just unhinged and then hinged back together."

He had entered the game with a secret. The game before, he had pitched the sixth and seventh innings. He felt fine that night, but the next morning he awoke to find his elbow swollen and hurting.

"It felt like I had a 10-pound weight in it," he said. "But, the next day I was throwing the bullpen, and I was hoping it was just a little thing. But, I was in there throwing, and it hurt so bad chills were running down my body. I thought it could be serious, but I knew if I told coach (Adam Jarecki) he wouldn't let me pitch. And, I was supposed to be a leader, so I wanted to pitch against OP."

But, four pitches in the secret had come back to haunt him. After the pitch -- after the initial feeling -- everything went numb.

"It felt like my elbow had gone with the ball," he said. "I grabbed it and held it because it felt like it had fallen off. It was numb, then the pain started to set in and it was really tough."

Davis was done, and as he sat on the bench watching his Cavaliers lose to the Indians, the tears started to stream down his cheeks.

"I was thinking, 'Could this be the end?'," he said. " Why me, and why now? I finally had recruits looking at me. How could all of my work come to an end in one night?"

Jarecki remembers the injury well. Who wouldn't remember his ace's season coming to an end? Really though, it wasn't just about that for the Cavalier coach.

"That was the final straw," Jarecki said. "He had been hurting. And, he was a big part of our program, but the main thing was whether or not it was going to be something that was going to cost him forever.

"For me, it was tough because he's the best," he added. "He's a great kid. He's a good Christian boy."

Luckily, Davis' career wasn't over. Unluckily, the roller coaster ride had just begun for him. It started with the doctor visits. The first doctor told him his elbow was swollen, it would be two weeks and he'd be pitching again. Four doctors later, he heard what he had been fearing all along.

"He told me I wasn't going to pitch again," Davis said. "I had heard from two different doctors that it would be two weeks, and then he said, 'I don't think you will ever pitch again.' I remember the words, he said, 'This isn't something you want to do in college is it?'"

Davis' answer was a resounding yes. That decision was easy enough, but the next one would be a little tougher. He saw an elbow specialist in Columbia and was told it was just a partial tear. He could rehab it and have a 50/50 chance of pitching during his senior year or he could have surgery and probably lose any chance of earning a college scholarship.

"When you have the surgery, you have to rehab hard for 12 or 14 months," Davis said. "At that time, it was April. After a kid that is being recruited has that surgery if college scouts don't get to take a look at him again they are not going to give him a chance. I thought it was better I take that 50/50 chance."

He rehabbed hard, still hoping to save his dreams, but Kaleb Davis wasn't the same and that was easy to see. His injury was in April, and he didn't throw again until December at a camp held by Clemson.

"Coach (Kevin) O'Sullivan was sitting there watching me pitch, and he remembered me from when I had gone there in the past," Davis said. "He was sitting there talking to me and watching me pitch, and he asked if there was something wrong with my arm. I told him then about the UCL, and he said, 'Well, you look good, but you don't look as good as you did last winter. That bothers me.' So, of course, that took a toll on me."

And so, the interest that was once there started to disappear. Clemson, Carolina, Coastal Carolina, the College of Charleston, one-by-one they all backed away. Davis was damaged goods. But, one school still liked him, Anderson University.

"A roller coaster is the best way to describe it," Davis said. "A college coach, basically, it's just a job for them. If they've got one pitcher, they've got another in mind just as good. Put an asterisk beside one of those guy's name -- he has a UCL injury -- and they are no longer interested. I still thought I would have a chance to play with them, but I realized I didn't. The coaches at Anderson were always straight up."

So, Davis signed with the school in April of his senior year, and he had a good fall. But, in the fifth game of the Anderson fall campaign, he got a familiar feeling in the elbow, it unhinged again. It wasn't as bad this time. He knew what it was, and after meeting with the coaches, he decided to go under the knife.

"I had proven myself to them," he said. "I felt comfortable with where I was with them.

"Anderson has been a dream come true," he continued. "It's been everything that Clemson and Carolina haven't been. Basically, it's just a group of people that have always given me a shot. I'm glad that I got hurt the first time. If I don't get hurt, I didn't even know Anderson was a school before."

He underwent Tommy John Surgery May 8. He had seven MRI's prior to the procedure and all had showed a partial tear. When doctors opened the elbow they found something much different, a complete tear. Davis had been pitching for nearly two years -- throwing in the high 80's -- with no UCL. And, they say you come back from Tommy John surgery throwing harder. Considering the surgery has a 90 percent success rate, Davis is pretty excited about what his future now holds. The big league dreams are back. First though, there will be a near 18-month recovery process. Not playing will be tough, but Davis said he's already been through tougher.

"I can't remember the last time I pitched and my arm didn't hurt," he said. "I honestly can't remember.

"You go through so many things and wonder why," he continued. "But, you get through the storm, and it's just like, 'Thank you God.'"

T&D Sports Writer Brian Linder can be reached bye-mail at blinder@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 533-5553.

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