You don’t hear about many major league pitchers who go through two Tommy John surgeries in their careers. You almost never hear about MLB pitchers who go through the surgery twice in two years.

So I was stunned when I heard Anthony Brady.

Brady pitched for Idaho Falls High School and earned a scholarship at Division III Puget Sound in 2012. During his freshman season, the right-hander tore his ulnar collateral ligament and needed Tommy John surgery. He returned in time for his sophomore season. Three appearances in, he tore his UCL again.

Brady’s story would be amazing if it ended there. Instead, Brady received Tommy John surgery again, returned in time for his senior season and finished the year healthy for the first time since high school. As you can imagine, Brady’s rehab process was the most fascinating part of this story.

Here’s my profile of Brady that appeared in the May 3 edition of the Post Register:

Anthony Brady feared his ulnar collateral ligament had torn for the second time in two years, but he held his emotions in check until the MRI report arrived.

Brady was a sophomore pitcher for the University of Puget Sound baseball team. As a freshman, Brady tore the UCL in his right elbow and needed Tommy John surgery, but the right-hander returned for the start of the 2014 season.

In his third appearance that year, Brady threw a fastball and felt a pop in his right elbow. Eight days later, Puget Sound’s head athletic trainer Craig Bennett confirmed Brady’s fear — the UCL was torn again.

Brady buried his head in his hands with tears streaming from his eyes.

“I told Craig, ‘I’m not going to quit,’ ” Brady said. “At the time, I said it like that with such confidence, but during the rehab process it was a completely different story.”

Brady is now a senior at Puget Sound. He pitched for the Loggers all spring, finishing a baseball season for the first time since he played for the Idaho Falls Bandits after his senior year at Idaho Falls High School. The previous three years were mired in fear and self-doubt, which Brady overcame with persistence.

Eerily similar injuries

On Feb. 16, 2013, Brady made his third bullpen appearance for the Loggers. Down 16-0 to Corban in the eighth inning, Brady recorded the first two outs and reached a 3-2 count on the third hitter. Brady decided to throw a fastball. He set, wound up and threw the pitch into the dirt. Brady crouched on the mound in pain, prompting a visit from head coach Brian Billings. Brady told Billings he slipped on the mound and tweaked his hamstring. It was a lie. On that 3-2 fastball, Brady felt a pop in his right arm.

“That was probably the most pain I’ve felt throughout the process,” Brady said. “My whole arm had searing pain up and down and kind of went numb. I knew at that point that whatever had happened was pretty bad.”Brady and Billings decided to gauge his health with some practice pitches. He threw the first one softly and felt fine. He threw the second with a normal arm action.

Brady underwent an MRI days later, and it revealed a torn UCL. The second practice pitch was ill-advised, but the UCL had already been shredded on the 3-2 fastball.

Dr. Elias Khlafayan, the orthopedic surgeon for the Seattle Mariners and Seahawks, performed Brady’s Tommy John surgery. Brady’s right arm was in a brace for the first two months after the procedure. After that, he worked on regaining range of motion in the arm. He lifted light weights (one or two pounds) after the brace came off to regain muscle mass in his bicep and tricep. He also rehabilitated his left leg because the tendon graft in his hamstring was used to replace his torn UCL (in Tommy John surgery, a tendon from another part of the body replaces the torn UCL).

The final half of the 12-month recovery process involved throwing, first with a tennis ball from a short distance.

Brady didn’t suffer any major setbacks and was cleared to play before the 2014 season began. He was even slotted as a starting pitcher.

In his third start of the season, Brady carried a shutout into the fourth inning against Whitman. With one out, the count swelled to 3-2. Brady chose fastball. He set, wound up and the pitch plummeted into the dirt. He felt a pop in his right elbow.

This time, Brady knew something was wrong and immediately left the game, but he wasn’t sure of the severity.

“I had seen a lot of stories that during the throwing process when you come back from Tommy John, it’s pretty common to feel pops, feel a snapping, because you have a lot of scar tissue that builds up over the surgery area,” Brady said. “My thought was, ‘Maybe it’s just scar tissue.’ ”

The fear of another torn UCL, however, crept into Brady’s mind. Sure enough, eight days after the Whitman game, the MRI report revealed another torn UCL.

“(My wife and I) both thought he was done,” Brady’s father, Cliff, said. “‘Nobody would go through this twice.’”

‘Is it really worth it?’

Tommy John recovery lasts about 18 months the second time, so Brady knew he’d miss the rest of his sophomore season and all of his junior season. Plus, the surgery is far less successful on second-time recipients than on first-timers, according to Jeff Passan’s book “The Arm.”

“I was looking at it saying, ‘Is it really worth it?,’ ” Brady said. ”’Do I really want to put in all of this work just to come back and play Division III baseball for one more year?’ I was ready to quit every day.”

So why didn’t he quit?

Part of the answer stems from his experience at the Logger Youth Baseball Camp, where he coached 7- to 13-year-olds at Puget Sound during the summers of 2013 and 2014. Those players reminded Brady of a younger him. They rekindled his love for baseball.

Brady’s girlfriend at the time also helped keep him going. So did his parents, who he felt he’d let down if he quit baseball. He also credits his I.F. roots.

“Growing up in southeast Idaho, you, especially the baseball player, gain a chip on your shoulder,” Brady said. “You hate being told no, and you can’t stand being underrated.”

The return

The grind of Brady’s 18-month recovery felt easy compared to his first games as a senior this spring. Brady allowed a combined 11 runs on 10 hits and five walks in his second, third and fourth appearances.

“I was honestly ready to quit,” Brady said. “I couldn’t deal with the fact that I had put in all of this work the last three years to come back and literally just suck.”

Brady also had trouble trusting his twice-repaired arm, so Bennett suggested he see a sports psychologist. Brady agreed.

The psychologist gave Brady strategies to improve his focus and confidence, but more than anything, she served as an outlet for Brady to express his tormented thoughts.

In Saturday’s season finale, Brady struck out six Whitman batters in 2.2 scoreless innings. His final ERA was 3.86.

“He’s the hardest working, most determined athlete I’ve ever seen,” Puget Sound head baseball coach Jeff Halstead said.

Brady will attend graduate school at Northern Colorado this fall with plans to study biomechanics. He also has a spot on the baseball team. Until mid-March, he didn’t know if he’d be physically or mentally capable enough to continue pitching.

“Any day that I have the ability to go out and play catch and even throw a baseball at this point, I don’t take it for granted,” Brady said.