Good morning, all and happy Monday!
St. Louis Cardinals rookie Joshua Báez set a MLB record on Sunday that may never be broken. I break it down in the commentary.
Remembering Tommy John
Tommy John died yesterday. The former big league pitcher became renowned for a medical procedure that eventually became known as Tommy John surgery. The operation, considered groundbreaking in 1974, has been commonplace for decades. Surgeons replace damaged tissue or a torn ligament on the inner side of the elbow with a tendon taken elsewhere from the person’s body. It has saved the career of thousands of professional and amateur players and is not limited to just pitchers.
I once interviewed John, when he was the pitching coach for the Harrisburg Senators of the Eastern League, and we talked extensively about the operation. Although proud to be associated with the procedure, he expressed concern that those who had the operation were coming back too soon. He said to properly recover, a pitcher needed a year-and-a-half. It seems normal now for a player, who has had the operation, to start throwing 10 months to a year after the surgery. I’ll give the advancement in medical technology, as the reason for the changed timetable, but maybe John had a point.
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for subscribing and have a magnificent Monday!
DAN
