Dr. Tom House was the pitching coach for the San Diego Padres back in 1995. He also happened to live next door to Chargers quarterback Drew Brees at the time of his now famous shoulder injury. As it worked out, Dr. House ended up helping Brees with his rehabilitation after his now famous surgery.
Going from a pitching coach to a quarterback guru may seem like quite a leap, but Dr. House swears that throwing a football and throwing a baseball are essentially the same. After some of his recent successes, who could disagree?
From Nolan Ryan to Drew Brees to Tom Brady is surely not a path followed by many coaches, but Dr. House seems to have made a successful transition through a combination of luck and skill. House recently said in an interview, “You like to say you’re lucky, and you like to say you’re good and in reality, you’re a little bit of both.”
This summer Dr. Tom House is a busy man. Not only does he head the National Pitching Association and run the Rod Dedeaux Research and Baseball Institute, Dr. House also travels around the country working with some of the finest quarterbacks, present and future in the National Football League.
Dr. House, now 67 years old, was the Brave’s reliever who caught Hank Aaron’s 715th home run in 1974. He later said, “I was blessed to be part of that wonderful event. It’s been an ongoing warm-and-fuzzy for me ever since.”
Tom House also gained a measure of fame for his part in transforming the two teenage baseball novices from India into real pitchers in the Disney movie “Million Dollar Arm”. The actor Bill Paxton played the part of Dr. Tom House.
It’s been said that the best advertisement is word-of-mouth and that’s all Dr. House has ever needed to attract clients such as Tom Brady, Matt Barkley, Carson Palmer, Alex Smith and Terrelle Pryor in addition to Drew Brees.
Tom House has a Ph.D. in sports psychology. He was an MLB pitcher for 8 years and a coach for the next 25 years including a stint in Japan and one with the University of Southern California, his alma mater.
This summer he is concerned with fine tuning several NFL quarterbacks in preparation for next season. “This is a time for tune-ups. They’ve done all the effort stuff, the repetition stuff, and now they come in for tune-ups before their mandatory camps.”
Who would have thought that throwing a baseball and a football would be basically the same motion? Dr. Tom House has figured it out!
