Every so often, someone does an article on the advancements of Ulnar Collateral Ligament Replacement Surgery – or Tommy John surgery, as most of the world calls the procedure.
The writer will bring up a few “prominent examples” illustrating how the surgery has saved baseball careers, and how at this stage in the game, players (pitchers in particular) are coming back quicker from the surgery than they did just a few years ago. (Tommy John himself needed 18 months before he could come back, whereas Tim Hudson needed less than a year to do the same.)
And of course we all hear about the pitchers that come back throwing harder they they did before, blindly claiming that the surgery (and the rehab) were the reasons for their new-found heater. Those of you that have been reading my stuff for a while might be familiar with my post, “Elective Surgery for Junior,” where parents are asking doctors to do the surgery on their kids, in order to throw harder. (Click here to read the article and see the video clip.)
It’s even gotten to the point where big league managers just shrug off the surgery, especially if it happens to a younger pitcher. Case in point:
You go back to Tommy John and how it’s evolved over the course of time, it’s definitely at the point where it’s not a negative anymore,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “You do believe that if it happens to a young guy, you know you’re going to have him back and possibly even better. It’s the world we live in, man.
But the line of the day has to go to Jim Tracy, manager of the Colorado Rockies…
“It’s like taking your car to Jiffy Lube,” he said. “Does your car run better when you get an oil change? Same thing here.”
I will admit, blowing out you UCL is not the “baseball-career death sentence” it once was. However, the surgery is not a guarantee to greatness, nor is it a promise that you will return to your former self as a ball player/ pitcher.
Tim Hudson has been lights out for the Braves this year. On the other hand, Fransisco Liriano needed four years to begin to see glimpses of his former self, when he dominated as a rookie. Then there are others that never get back what they lost.
The link below will take you to an article that starts off with the line, “Only 45 percent of baseball players were able to return to the game at the same or higher level after shoulder or elbow surgery…”
To be fair, that study includes shoulder surgery, which is still at the very least a stay on Death Row.
And you will find other links on the very page that I am sending you, that point to more “positive numbers” for elbow surgery. (But still no guarantee!)
But here’s the point(s) I want to make:
- Surgery takes time away from doing what you love. You may have had a successful procedure done on your arm, but how much time did you lose recovering and rehabbing? If your lucky, you’ll still miss at least a year of throwing the ball around! What if that “time off” happens right when you need to be noticed by coaches, scouts, etc.?
- Surgery is a corrective procedure for something you did wrong. Instead of falling back on any surgery, why not take the time to figure out what causes these injuries – and eventually the surgeries to “correct” them – in the first place?
- While there aren’t any articles on the site for the link below, I know people who have had “TJ,” and they were told flat-out, that there was an 80% success rate to regain normal function of their arm. NOT throwing a baseball, but everyday things like feeding yourself, or brushing your teeth!
- The surgery does not “injury-proof” your arm from future injuries. In fact, the “replacement part” does not have the ability to repair injured connective tissue (because there is no longer blood flow to that area), and because of that, is more likely to rupture than you “original part.”
Bottom line: Tommy John surgery is not like getting an oil change for your car. It’s more like getting your transmission replaced… after your car breaks down on the highway.
Here is the link:
Comeback To A Pre-Injury Level Disappointing For Professional Baseball Players
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080308091008.htm)
Coach Bones
