In a prior life, Tim Lincecum was 'The Freak'. Two-time Cy Young winner. Three-time World Series Champion.
Injuries led to a career drop off, and a year out of the game.
Now he's on the comeback path. But he's not ready yet.
"I'll be able to tell when that happens," Lincecum says. "It will be that snowball effect, where it's like 'okay, let's get going'."
But it's not time for that yet...
"I know he still talks to his brother... he doesn't want to lose that feel, that his brother is still here."
One month ago, Lincecum's older brother Sean died at 37 years old. But the conversation between brothers hasn't stopped.
"No matter what, I'll always have this voice in the back of my head that is Sean," Lincecum said of his brother. "And whether it's little things that he said... they're not huge conversations, because my brother was a man of few words. But I still kinda have conversations with him about day-to-day stuff, or baseball stuff, because that was always our world. I mean, it's always nice to have him in the back of my mind, it would be nice to have him here, but, I always take him out there with me."
Lincecum will have his brother on his back this summer. The #44, worn in honor of Sean, who wore that number as a baseball coach.
"We [Lincecum and his father] have a picture of my brother sitting in the dugout, with a baseball uniform on where it says 'Lincecum' and it has 44 on the back, and there's a bunch of kids in the background and he's coaching them. And that's just my brother in his element, so that's just kind of the way I think about him."
But the thinking about him isn't going away... and neither are the conversations with his brother.
"It's just kind of that humbling moment, to feel like what really matters, and that's always going to be something I go back to. It was a profound loss, and it shouldn't have happened. But, you know, we're dealing with it, and he's still helping me today."
Helping. Listening. Coaching.
All for a younger brother on a comeback path.