Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Matt Moore had “Tommy John” surgery in April. He’s just one of hundreds of baseball pitchers, whether Major League, minor league or recreational, who’ve had surgery for a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in their pitching elbows.
Tommy John surgery, pioneered by Dr. Frank Jobe and named after L.A. Dodgers left-hander Tommy John, uses a grafted tendon from another part of the body to replace the UCL.
Tommy John surgery has a high success rate, and it has prolonged the careers of many professional baseball pitchers. In fact, the surgery has become so successful that pitchers have almost started accepting having Tommy John surgery as a typical career experience. One-third of today’s pitchers have the telltale triangular scar on their elbows, and fans who bet on baseball games no longer write-off pitchers after the procedure. Ironically, the success of Tommy John surgery just might be creating conditions in which more and more pitchers will have to have the operation.
Overusing Young Pitchers
One of the main drivers of torn-up pitching elbows is the increase in the number of young pitchers that are pitching year-round. In fact, according to the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI), most Tommy John surgeries performed on young kids are performed in warm weather states like California, Texas and Florida. Dr. Jobe, who died in March at the age of 88, said that many Tommy John surgeries resulted from simple overuse. For this reason, he strongly advocated pitch counts in youth baseball.
Another surgeon who performs many Tommy John procedures, Dr. James Andrews, ASMI director, says that radar guns shouldn’t be used with young pitchers because they push young pitchers to overthrow the ball. Others recommend that young pitchers should avoiding pitch curveballs until they’re at least 14, and they shouldn’t pitch sliders until they’re 18.
Dr. Tim Kremcheck, orthopedic surgeon and chief medical director for the Cincinnati Reds, performed Tommy John surgeries last year on two 14-year-old boys who had pitched in the Little League World Series. Dr. Andrews has reported that parents have asked him to perform Tommy John surgery on their sons, even though their sons did not have injured ligaments, because they heard that the surgery would make them stronger pitchers. As ASMI director, Andrews works tirelessly to prevent young pitchers from injuring their elbows. “They don’t realize the complications associated with the surgery,” Andrews says. “There’s no injury that can’t be made worse with surgery.”
Like Taking Your Car to Jiffy Lube
Jim Tracy, former manager of the Colorado Rockies, famously said that Tommy John surgery was “like taking your car to Jiffy Lube.” Managers want their star hurlers back in the lineup as soon as possible. Although there’s a chance that many torn UCLs could improve with conventional treatment, pitchers are encouraged to just have the surgery and get it over with so that they don’t have to sit out more than one season.
Pitcher injuries have increased by 700 percent in MLB, resulting in half a billion dollars in lost revenue each season for teams. Will Carroll, writing for Bleacher Report, heard an MLB executive say that he was going to send all of his MLB draftees for Tommy John surgery so that they could get it out of the way. “Baseball’s slow pace of change has created a climate of revision rather than prevention,” wrote Carroll, “where Jobe’s operation has become so successful that it’s not considered a failure of the system.”
What’s the Solution?
The power that today’s professional athletes have to display to remain competitive is outpacing the capabilities of the human body. From torn-up pitching elbows to torn ACLs in basketball, the human body hasn’t evolved enough to hold up to the demands of professional sports. Dr. Jobe saved so many pitching careers that he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but even he said it would be better if the surgery didn’t have to happen at all. Unfortunately, pitching arms will continue to be pushed past human limits as long as pitchers are willing to sacrifice their God-given UCLs for the love of the game. It’s a decision that an adult should be free to make, but not a burden that a Little Leaguer should have to bear.
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