MLB notes: John Smoltz set to make Hall of Fame history
When John Smoltz is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in three weeks he’ll be the first player enshrined following Tommy John surgery.
“That’s pretty doubtful that he would be the last,” said renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, who performed Smoltz’s surgery. “You can’t believe how many are out there now that are pitching very successfully.
“It’s quite an accomplishment to go through that and make the Hall of Fame,” Andrews said. “It’s not going to be the easiest thing to reproduce, but I’m sure somebody will come along and duplicate that.”
There will be plenty of candidates. In a four-year span alone (2004-07), Andrews performed the surgery on 588 pitchers, nearly one-fourth of them high school age or younger. Matt Harvey of the New York Mets and Kansas City’s Luke Hochevar are just two of several major league pitchers with Tommy John surgery on their résumés, and Orioles catcher Matt Wieters is proof that other position players are vulnerable, too.
The ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction is a surgical graft procedure in which the damaged ligament in the elbow is replaced by a tendon from elsewhere in the body. Since the late Dr. Frank Jobe pioneered the surgery on Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John in 1974, it has become commonplace.
Fear of the surgery lurks in every major league dugout today.
“We’re not developing pitchers the right way to learn how to do their craft. We’re asking them to go as hard as you can, as short as you can, and that’s good enough,” said Smoltz, who’s working on his golf game in preparation for the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe in mid-July.
“You can’t blame them. It looks sexy, it feels good, and we fall in love with it. But these guys are not given the proper time to figure out what kind of pitcher they are,” he said. “We learned how to pitch.”
Andrews sees a number of professional pitchers with an increased rate of injury, and most had some type of elbow injury when they were playing youth sports.
“That group of pitchers is just coming through the professional ranks now, and they were the first group that really played one sport (and) specialized in year-round baseball,” Andrews said. “The increased incidence right now is probably related to specialization. When they’re young baseball players, they have fatigue factors and get hurt, and it shows up early on in their professional careers.”
Andrews says arm injuries will likely continue until parents and those who control youth sports manage the system differently.
Clearing the bases
The Cardinals placed outfielder Jon Jay on the 15-day DL with a left wrist stress reaction and bone bruise and called up LHP Tim Cooney to start against San Diego. … The Blue Jays signed international free agent Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the 16-year-old son of nine-time All-Star and 2004 A.L. MVP Vladimir Guerrero. … The Astros placed outfielder George Springer on the 15-day DL with a broken right wrist.