Today, the St. Louis Cardinals were dealt a terrible blow--it was announced that ace pitcher Chris Carpenter will have to go under the knife and have Tommy John Surgery. He will not return until the middle of next season.Today, a teenager may have been dealt what he thinks is a terrific opportunity--Tommy John Surgery. According to a cover article in today's New York Times, Tommy John surgery is trickling down from the big leagues to little league as overworked arms lead to more and more injuries. Yet, some teenagers see Tommy John Surgery as a risk-free path towards a stronger arm and faster pitches.
Jere Longman begins the story: "While examining a 17-year-old pitcher for a knee injury last year in Nashville, Dr. Damon H. Petty was asked a chilling question by the teenager and his father: If reconstructive elbow surgery were performed on his healthy throwing arm, might he gain some speed on his fastball?"
In short, Tommy John Surgery consists of "harvesting a tendon from the forearm or below the knee, then weaving it in a figure-eight pattern through tunnels that have been drilled in the ulna and humerus bones that are part of the elbow joint," Longman writes. This is no run of the mill surgery, yet teens and minor leaguers are voluntarily going under the knife.
I hope that aspiring ball players don't watch Rookie of the Year anytime soon...
With the proliferation of Lasick eye surgery in professional sports, along with the implications of this article, I'm beginning to wonder if there should or can be a line drawn between medically related treatment and purely athletic-motivated treatment. Do we want our athletes to be artificially athletic? The outrage over steroids has shown that we do not. Steroids were initially intended for medicinal use and soon got into the wrong hands with the wrong intentions. In the coming decades, I suspect that unnecessary surgery will replace the unnecessary steroids of today as the means to cheat your way to athletic stardom.
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