The Miz, Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski, reveals his battle with dyslexia
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- We've seen the dominant side of Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski. But in an exclusive one-on-one interview, CBS 58 Sports Director Lance Allan learned something about the Miz few know anything about.
Jacob Misiorowski
"Yeah, I don't know if your right word is diagnosed with dyslexia," Jacob Misiorowski said. "When I was a kid, I struggled with reading. Writing. Doing all that. You know, spelling is really a struggle for me. Flips my b's and d's and w's and m's. So it's, you know, an interesting thing to you know, deal with as a kid and not understand it. But no, I think it made me stronger."
Most in the Brewers' organization didn't even know of what Jacob has battled for most of his life.
"Second grade, right as we started reading," Misiorowski says. "And I was like struggling. And the teacher kind of pulled me aside and was helping me out and was like, I got really lucky in my, that teacher was excellent when it came to like that stuff. So she really understood and diagnosed it really quick. And so got me the help I needed to get through."
Like figuring out a scouting report? The Miz and those around him developed a plan and attacked it.
"Slow down," Misiorowski says. "Don't try and speed through it. And then another odd one that helped was changing the background of the article you're reading and changing it to like a red or a black and making the letters white."
"If it was black words on a white page, did it literally vibrate a little bit for you on the page," asked CBS 58's Lance Allan.
"Yeah so like, yeah the letters would jump," Misiorowski replied. "They would move. It's you know, it's all sorts of stuff. Look at a word and say it's bed and like it would be d-e-b. And it was like, you know. I know that's not what it says but in my head that's what I see."
Jacob Misiorowski
At first, it wasn't easy.
"You know I had my fair share of hardships when it came to that," Misiorowski says. "I think the biggest thing was that they're dealing with something too. I think that's when I realized that. Like I kind of, you know, understood that I'm right there with them. I just have to learn this one thing a different way."
But he's already making an impact on kids.
"My fiancée, when she was teaching, she had one kid that was struggling with the same thing I am," Misiorowski recalls. "And I really got to sit down with him and you know, kind of explain to him what I use and what helped me. And you know, we found something that helped him and he really like, blew up and was really cool with it all. And you know, helped him a lot."
Misiorowski plans to do a SHARP Literacy fundraiser on Sept. 10, and help others by spreading the message.
"With the dyslexia side? Like I think it's, you know a more common thing than people think and you know you're definitely not alone when it comes to it."
Jacob Misiorowski