GaryMrMets
02-26-2002, 05:08 PM
http://houston.astros.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news_story.jsp?article_id=mlb_20020225_singern otebook_news&team_id=mlb
News
2/25/2002 10:00 pm ET
Tommy John happy elbow surgery made a difference
By Tom Singer
MLB.com
The fair-haired gentleman strolling among the diamonds with the slight gut spilling over his belt looked like a former Major League pitcher who had taken his last wind-up 13 years ago. Which he was.
What he did not look like was an entry in a medical encyclopedia. Which he also was.
"I had the thing done in 1974 because I wanted to pitch again, but I never thought it would become such an epidemic," said Tommy John.
Yes, that's as in "Tommy John surgery," the reconstructive procedure that has salvaged countless big-league careers in the 27 years since Dr. Frank Jobe -- the orthopedist for the Los Angeles Dodgers -- pioneered it on John.
You can't pick up a newspaper -- or click on a web site -- these days without reading of someone either undergoing or recovering from Tommy John surgery. The one-time wily left-hander has become a medical adjective.
"Pitchers had doubtless had that problem for a while, but nobody could diagnose it," said John. "It was usually, 'Pop, I threw my arm out,' then going home to sell cars or whatever."
John incurred "that problem" -- a torn ligament in the elbow -- while pitching against the Expos July 17, 1974. He tried usual rehab methods, but by Sept. 1 had decided he would need the surgery.
"Dr. Jobe told me if I didn't have it done, I wouldn't pitch again," John recalled. "Well, I wanted to pitch again. Transplant surgeries had been done quite frequently in the hand and the wrist, but not the elbow.
"I wanted to know what were my chances if I got it done. Dr. Jobe said two, three in a hundred. They were not very good, I know that."
So why is the tendon transplant now known as Tommy John surgery? Because the first patient spawned thousands of others (between them alone, Drs. Jobe and Jim Andrews have performed more than 2,000 such operations)?
Not necessarily. Without results, TJ would not have received such fame. But he remains still the best-case scenario for anyone undergoing the knife.
Before the operation, John had been an established big-game pitcher with a career total of 124 wins.
After the operation, he won 164 more.
So what does he think of the everlasting fame of being associated with a ground-breaking medical procedure?
"I'm just glad," he said with a smile, "that Dr. Jobe wasn't a proctologist."
Time is on their side
While other teams are entering the New Age, the Expos have gotten older the old-fashioned way, by signing out-of-work veterans. They now belong to the National League East -- and to the AARP.
Their camp looks more like the CFL Montreal Alouettes', with 67 players in uniform. When do two-a-days start, Frank Robinson?
"We don't want to get caught short-handed," the manager explains the recent influx of familiar faces. "Having such a crowded camp doesn't make it more difficult. I need to get a good read on these players."
The 2002 Expos could turn out to be his best club ever. He reached his peak of 87 wins with both the 1982 Giants and 1989 Orioles. Of course, the Expos could be solid and still not make much of a dent in the loaded NL East.
The length of Spring Training is always being debated. With all the work facing him, it's obvious where Robinson's sentiments lie.
Come late March, if Spring Training seems to be dragging, bear this in mind: If it had been 10 days shorter last year, we may never have heard of Ichiro Suzuki.
Twenty games into Cactus League play, Seattle Manager Lou Piniella was telling close friends, "Who's idea was this Suzuki deal? He isn't going to hit .250 ... they're gonna hit him in the legs, then will pitch him away."
A week before the season, having seen the left-handed Ichiro do little but slap grounders to short, Piniella asked him, "Do you think you could pull the ball?"
Ichiro yanked three homers during that last week of exhibition play, changing Piniella's mind about him. He then realized Ichiro had merely been setting up the league, rope-a-dope style, for his MVP season.
No apology needed
When he visited Anaheim with the White Sox in August, Jose Canseco says, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia approached him and "apologized and said they had made a mistake."
Actually, Canseco might owe the Angels a thank-you note for the way they released him midway through last Spring Training, because of a perception he wasn't doing enough to work himself into playing shape.
The slight hit Canseco hard, but it also might've gotten his rear in gear. Without the motivation to reverse his tarnished image, Canseco may not have worked his way through Newark back to the Majors.
Belle ringer?
The Orioles' 40-man roster includes an Albert Belle. Is this an impostor, since the original had to retire a year ago because of a degenerative hip condition?
No, it's the same Belle. And it isn't an error.
Consider it the former slugger's "golden parachute." By being kept on the active roster until Opening Day, when he'll be transferred to the 60-day disabled list, Belle will continue to receive his annual $13 million salary through next season -- while the Birds get reimbursed for 70 percent of it through an insurance policy.
Still, $3.9 million comes out of the Orioles' pockets. That's a pretty hefty deductible.
Around the horn
Keep your eyes on Florida shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who committed 26 errors last season and 72 in three years but now is being tutored by Perry Hill -- the same coach Montreal's Orlando Cabrera credits with his 2001 Gold Glove. ...
Orioles right-hander Sidney Ponson, mentioned occasionally as a possible closer, says he could save 40 games if he wanted to. But he doesn't want to. "Some of the greatest relievers in the game still struggle. Right now, starting is the only thing I'm talking about. The only thing I want to close is doors." ...
Guess Rangers reliever John Rocker, who is about to make his acting debut by playing a deranged slasher in something called The Greenskeeper, is not too concerned about changing his image. ...
Is Vladimir Guerrero really a good choice to be one of the Expos' co-captains? Since camp opened, he has zip-lipped the Expos media -- who now are concerned that their great relationship with the team's other Latinos might suffer if Guerrero is the one setting an example . . .
Baltimore outfielder Jay Gibbons is getting complimented on a leaner look thanks to an offseason weight loss of a dozen pounds. Manager Mike Hargrove isn't so sure: "His arms still look like my legs. Maybe his neck just got longer." . . .
That high school junior going around camps peppering batting practice pitches over walls is no longer called Prince. He now is "the hitting artist formerly known as Cecil Fielder's son."
Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
http://houston.astros.mlb.com/mlb/photo/2002_news/j/john_tommy/0225john_tommy288.jpg
Tommy John (right) and Expos manager Frank Robinson played together on the 1972 Dodgers, before John had the surgical procedure that would bear his name.
News
2/25/2002 10:00 pm ET
Tommy John happy elbow surgery made a difference
By Tom Singer
MLB.com
The fair-haired gentleman strolling among the diamonds with the slight gut spilling over his belt looked like a former Major League pitcher who had taken his last wind-up 13 years ago. Which he was.
What he did not look like was an entry in a medical encyclopedia. Which he also was.
"I had the thing done in 1974 because I wanted to pitch again, but I never thought it would become such an epidemic," said Tommy John.
Yes, that's as in "Tommy John surgery," the reconstructive procedure that has salvaged countless big-league careers in the 27 years since Dr. Frank Jobe -- the orthopedist for the Los Angeles Dodgers -- pioneered it on John.
You can't pick up a newspaper -- or click on a web site -- these days without reading of someone either undergoing or recovering from Tommy John surgery. The one-time wily left-hander has become a medical adjective.
"Pitchers had doubtless had that problem for a while, but nobody could diagnose it," said John. "It was usually, 'Pop, I threw my arm out,' then going home to sell cars or whatever."
John incurred "that problem" -- a torn ligament in the elbow -- while pitching against the Expos July 17, 1974. He tried usual rehab methods, but by Sept. 1 had decided he would need the surgery.
"Dr. Jobe told me if I didn't have it done, I wouldn't pitch again," John recalled. "Well, I wanted to pitch again. Transplant surgeries had been done quite frequently in the hand and the wrist, but not the elbow.
"I wanted to know what were my chances if I got it done. Dr. Jobe said two, three in a hundred. They were not very good, I know that."
So why is the tendon transplant now known as Tommy John surgery? Because the first patient spawned thousands of others (between them alone, Drs. Jobe and Jim Andrews have performed more than 2,000 such operations)?
Not necessarily. Without results, TJ would not have received such fame. But he remains still the best-case scenario for anyone undergoing the knife.
Before the operation, John had been an established big-game pitcher with a career total of 124 wins.
After the operation, he won 164 more.
So what does he think of the everlasting fame of being associated with a ground-breaking medical procedure?
"I'm just glad," he said with a smile, "that Dr. Jobe wasn't a proctologist."
Time is on their side
While other teams are entering the New Age, the Expos have gotten older the old-fashioned way, by signing out-of-work veterans. They now belong to the National League East -- and to the AARP.
Their camp looks more like the CFL Montreal Alouettes', with 67 players in uniform. When do two-a-days start, Frank Robinson?
"We don't want to get caught short-handed," the manager explains the recent influx of familiar faces. "Having such a crowded camp doesn't make it more difficult. I need to get a good read on these players."
The 2002 Expos could turn out to be his best club ever. He reached his peak of 87 wins with both the 1982 Giants and 1989 Orioles. Of course, the Expos could be solid and still not make much of a dent in the loaded NL East.
The length of Spring Training is always being debated. With all the work facing him, it's obvious where Robinson's sentiments lie.
Come late March, if Spring Training seems to be dragging, bear this in mind: If it had been 10 days shorter last year, we may never have heard of Ichiro Suzuki.
Twenty games into Cactus League play, Seattle Manager Lou Piniella was telling close friends, "Who's idea was this Suzuki deal? He isn't going to hit .250 ... they're gonna hit him in the legs, then will pitch him away."
A week before the season, having seen the left-handed Ichiro do little but slap grounders to short, Piniella asked him, "Do you think you could pull the ball?"
Ichiro yanked three homers during that last week of exhibition play, changing Piniella's mind about him. He then realized Ichiro had merely been setting up the league, rope-a-dope style, for his MVP season.
No apology needed
When he visited Anaheim with the White Sox in August, Jose Canseco says, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia approached him and "apologized and said they had made a mistake."
Actually, Canseco might owe the Angels a thank-you note for the way they released him midway through last Spring Training, because of a perception he wasn't doing enough to work himself into playing shape.
The slight hit Canseco hard, but it also might've gotten his rear in gear. Without the motivation to reverse his tarnished image, Canseco may not have worked his way through Newark back to the Majors.
Belle ringer?
The Orioles' 40-man roster includes an Albert Belle. Is this an impostor, since the original had to retire a year ago because of a degenerative hip condition?
No, it's the same Belle. And it isn't an error.
Consider it the former slugger's "golden parachute." By being kept on the active roster until Opening Day, when he'll be transferred to the 60-day disabled list, Belle will continue to receive his annual $13 million salary through next season -- while the Birds get reimbursed for 70 percent of it through an insurance policy.
Still, $3.9 million comes out of the Orioles' pockets. That's a pretty hefty deductible.
Around the horn
Keep your eyes on Florida shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who committed 26 errors last season and 72 in three years but now is being tutored by Perry Hill -- the same coach Montreal's Orlando Cabrera credits with his 2001 Gold Glove. ...
Orioles right-hander Sidney Ponson, mentioned occasionally as a possible closer, says he could save 40 games if he wanted to. But he doesn't want to. "Some of the greatest relievers in the game still struggle. Right now, starting is the only thing I'm talking about. The only thing I want to close is doors." ...
Guess Rangers reliever John Rocker, who is about to make his acting debut by playing a deranged slasher in something called The Greenskeeper, is not too concerned about changing his image. ...
Is Vladimir Guerrero really a good choice to be one of the Expos' co-captains? Since camp opened, he has zip-lipped the Expos media -- who now are concerned that their great relationship with the team's other Latinos might suffer if Guerrero is the one setting an example . . .
Baltimore outfielder Jay Gibbons is getting complimented on a leaner look thanks to an offseason weight loss of a dozen pounds. Manager Mike Hargrove isn't so sure: "His arms still look like my legs. Maybe his neck just got longer." . . .
That high school junior going around camps peppering batting practice pitches over walls is no longer called Prince. He now is "the hitting artist formerly known as Cecil Fielder's son."
Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
http://houston.astros.mlb.com/mlb/photo/2002_news/j/john_tommy/0225john_tommy288.jpg
Tommy John (right) and Expos manager Frank Robinson played together on the 1972 Dodgers, before John had the surgical procedure that would bear his name.