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June 5, 2021
New Blog Topic: BASEBALL’S INJURY EPIDEMIC
[Ed. note; Unlike many of today’s players, yesterday’s sluggers, including Ted Williams, were not musclebound. But they still did pretty well. Here’s we see Jimmie Foxx scratching his head and asking Ted, “How do you manage to hit all those home runs with those scrawny arms?” Bill Gutman addresses that question in his blog post today. -GL]
In the movie Philadelphia, Denzel Washington portrayed a defense attorney who, when cross-examining witnesses, had a favorite line. He would say, “Explain it to me like I’m a five-year-old.” Not a bad line in certain situations, so let’s try it on for size. Would someone please explain to me, like I’m a five-year-old, why baseball players are getting injured in droves? After all, these are truly outstanding athletes with access to the best training facilities, top nutrition, college-educated and experienced physical fitness trainers and the best equipment money can buy. Yet major league baseball’s injury list is more crowded than Grand Central Station at rush hour.
When I first started listening to baseball as a kid it didn’t even occur to me that baseball players could get hurt. I still remember the first injury I heard about. I was listening to a Yankees game on the radio about 1952 when Al Zarilla was playing right field for the opposing team. There was a line drive to right and I can remember the announcer saying, “Zarilla running in hard, he dives . . . and Zarilla is hurt.” Okay, so baseball players got hurt. The more I read about the game the more I realized that injuries were part of it. I read about the tragic beaning of Ray Chapman, about Smoky Joe Wood’s “dead” arm, and that Ted Williams broke his elbow in the 1950 All-Star Game. I also learned about Pistol Pete Reiser, and how a great career was cut short because he kept running into outfield walls.
But I also knew that many players in the 1950s and ’60s played through injuries, as many earlier ballplayers did. With just 16 teams, a player had to protect his livelihood and knew if he sat out too long, or even for a short period, he might become Wally Pipp to another Lou Gehrig. In other words, lose his job. So most soldiered on. Today it’s just the opposite. Players go on the IL for every little ding, and they’re even given days off simply to “rest.” Yet no matter how many days of rest, it doesn’t seem to stop them from being injured.
In the first two months of the 2021 season, injuries are up more than 15 percent from the same period in 2019, the last full baseball season. Sure, there are going to be injuries. Batters are going to foul balls off their shins and ankles or get hit on the hands or worse by pitches. There will still be the occasional collision in the outfield or a guy hitting the wall the wrong way. Or hand injuries from headfirst slides into the bag. That will always be part of the game. But it’s the way many players are being injured that I don’t quite understand.
Just recently the Mets lost two players, Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto, to hamstring strains in one game. Both got them the same way – running to first base. Mike Trout, who has been baseball’s best over the past decade, is on the shelf with a calf strain. He said he heard something pop while running from second to third, and supposedly not that hard. Calf strains have become all too common and sometimes can keep a player on the shelf for a month or more. Other all-to-similar injuries are the quad strain and the shoulder strain. That’s a lot of strains. Why?
Then there is a word you never heard years ago. Oblique. An oblique strain involves the muscles on the side of the ribcage and most times they occur when a players swing the bat. But isn’t swinging the bat what ballplayers are supposed to do every day? In today’s game, every swing is an all-or-nothing job, long and violent. And apparently, players do the same thing in the batting cage and in batting practice. But if swinging hard is causing this injury, why can’t the trainers figure out how players can avoid it? A player can hurt an oblique on just a single swing. But is the cause too many hard swings before that? And it’s an injury that can take time to heal. The Yanks Aaron Judge had an oblique strain two years ago and missed 54 games.
One theory is that today’s players are overtrained, especially with too much weight and strength work, and don’t spend enough time stretching. Some of today’s most imposing physical specimens, such as the Yankees Giancarlo Stanton, can’t seem to stay off the injury list. There has to be a reason. I remember going to Yankee Stadium in 1987 and arriving early to watch all the pregame preparation. I noticed a Yankee player sitting on the infield grass and then going into a stretching routine that must have lasted 20 minutes. It was a reserve infielder named Paul Zuvella, who never played much, but you could see how much emphasis he put on stretching, working on both legs and holding them in positions I hadn’t seen before, some while sitting; others while laying on his back. He obviously wanted to be loose and supple. It’s the tight muscle that pulls and strains more easily and I wonder how many of today’s players put as much emphasis on stretching and they do on weight lifting?
I’m also curious about what today’s players would think if they saw shirtless photos of a young Ted Williams [ed. note: see featured photo], Stan Musial or Joe DiMaggio. They were all very thin with no real noticeable muscles in their arms.
Yet all three were great hitters who hit for both average and power. It’s obvious they did it without weight lifting, but with long and loose muscles that certainly didn’t deter them, but may well have helped them become Hall of Famers. Knowing this, wouldn’t a player who bench presses 300 pounds to make himself a better hitter stop and question his routine? You would think so.
Then there’s the pitchers and the Tommy John surgery epidemic, a procedure that some 25 percent of major league hurlers have already undergone. I’ve talked about this before, but years ago it was the shoulder injury that felled pitchers most often. Yes, it’s a serious injury, but shoulder injuries were never as widespread as Tommy John elbow surgeries are today. Yet MLB and the individual teams seem to just accept it as part of the game, even though young pitchers in high school and college are now tearing that ulnar collateral ligament. Some pitchers have had the surgery two and even three times trying to save their careers. And it’s not always easy to return from it successfully. Some do; others don’t. So why not try to find the reason it is now so prevalent and try to teach and train young players differently. Babying them with pitch counts and innings limits obviously isn’t the answer. Nor is taking starters out after five or six innings. One inning relievers blow out their elbows, as well. Today’s theory seems to be let them throw as hard as they can for as long as they can.
And this is where I’d like someone to explain this to me as if I were a five-year-old. Has baseball ever gathered a group of surviving great pitchers together, guys who regularly threw 200-300 innings a year, completed games and are in the Hall of Fame. Pitchers like Jim Palmer, Steve Carlton, Ferguson Jenkins, Juan Marichal, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and a few others. Why not ask them how they trained and prepared to pitch, what their routines were that enabled them to rarely miss a turn and continue to pitch at a high-level year after year. And most importantly, why they never blew out their elbows. Don’t those who run baseball think something good may come out of ongoing discussions on that topic? Maybe it will lead to changes in the way pitchers are handled today – from Little League on up – something that will allow them to become more durable and less likely to get the dreaded elbow tear. Why isn’t that a way to go?
It’s the same with position players. Why not get input from players of the past who trained differently than they do today and didn’t get calf strains, obliques, hamstring pulls, shoulder strains, etc. There has to be a reason these injuries are so prevalent today. Why isn’t it Major League Baseball’s mission to at least try to learn why and how they might once again make everyday players more durable and less injury-prone. I simply don’t understand why these things haven’t been done and why nothing seems to change as the injuries continue to proliferate.
Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure even that inquisitive five-year-old wouldn’t understand.
Bill Gutman
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Ouch! I pulled an optical nerve reading your post, Bill.
Looks like I’ll be on the old timer’s IL (incontinence list)
for being po’d for all the missing games that players
have experienced this year and the “load” management
that teams have to go through. Love the “vacation” time Giancarlo Stanton time has with the Yankees.
It’s rather unbelievable, Paul. Every day you read about two or three more players going on that good old IL. Take care of that optical nerve.
Bill
It’s all about the $$!!
Today’s game pushes pitchers, batters, fielder’s, runners to a new calculated, standardized, threshold that for most is beyond what many are physically able to sustain over a period of time. That coupled with teams, agents, and players wanting to protect the short window of return (one’s career) on their investment.
Yet they don’t play any harder than the players of yesteryear did and stayed on the field, Pat. I really think they’re overtrained today. And yes, the agents most likely don’t want their guys playing through injuries.
Everything you say is true. Today’s players conditioning (if you want to call it that) emphasizes bat speed and over strengthening of certain muscles that cause weaker ones to fail. There are more players hitting homeruns farther than ever before but although impressive it still just counts as one run no matter how far you hit the baseball. But it is an entertainment business and long homeruns sell the game. Players are million dollar investments and owners seem to want to protect that investment by sitting players every time they get a little bruise or strain. The players know that and take advantage. It is their vacation time. I would like to see statistics on how many players suffer injuries before road trips. Then they get to stay home and nurse their boo-boos rather than be away from their families and friends. A former major leaguer (recent) friend of mine told me this happens more that you would think. It amazes me how good a player performs in his free agent year and how healthy he stays that year.
Definitely some truth to what you’re saying, Kevin. And after the great walk year when they get a big contract they somehow don’t play up to the same standard. Some do, of course, but others don’t, and many start missing more games with injuries. Fans buy tickets hoping to see a certain player and suddenly he’s not in the lineup, or just getting a day off to “rest.” It’s like going to a Broadway Show headlined by a major star and suddenly finding your watching the understudy.
Well developed blog piece, Mr. Gutman! And I agree with Misters Kennedy and Barwin that the $$$ are at the root of the IL epidemic. I wonder if the over abundance of injuries has carried over to the minor leagues and college baseball. A recent article in The Athletic postulated that the MLB players currently on the IL should be able to beat one of the All Star teams. Haven’t read anything about rampant minor league or college baseball injuries but maybe someone else has.
Don’t think you can completely blame the money, Steve, though it may factor in since agents don’t want their clients taking any chances that a minor injury could suddenly become a major one. But the types of injuries today — calf strains, hamstrings, and obliques — were not nearly as common years ago. And I think that comes from over training, too much strength work and not enough stretching.
Sometimes players will play with an injury and won’t tell the team about it for fear of losing their playing time or money. They are sometimes their worst enemy. A good manager is supposed to have the pulse of the team, but if the player masks their injuries how is a manager to know? I agree that injuries are part of the game. But I don’t ever recall so many players getting injured. And its everyone not just the star players, even key bench players are getting hurt. What is the solution? Not stretching, but if you don’t, you might end up pulling something. All of these training methods are supposed to eliminate injuries but player get injured anyway. I don’t what the answer is.
I think fewer players hide their injuries today, Sean, or play through them, then they did in the days of just 16 teams when players didn’t make millions or have long-term contracts and feared losing their jobs. There has to be a reason the injuries increase every year and this season are 15 percent higher than 2019, the last full season. You would think MLB would make it its business to find out, but they seem to just accept it and leave it up to the individual teams.
Hi Bill,
When you think of the power hitters of yesteryear, the weight room does not leap to mind. If Babe Ruth, Mel Ott, or even Jimmy Foxx spent their time hoisting heavy irons between games, it will come as news. The same can be said of their successors in the 1940s and ’50s, e.g., Williams, Aaron, Mays, Mathews, Frank Robinson. For sure there was a contingent of “beasts” in those eras as well (Mantle, McCovey, Killebrew and Reggie Jackson), but I don’t associate any of these names with the bench press, clean-and-jerk, or even the gym in general.
In other words, major leaguers from bygone eras did not waste their time bulking up in quest of the long-ball. They were not grotesquely muscle-bound. Through the first six decades of the 20th Century or so, they resembled most fans of the male persuasion. More importantly, they were not a bunch of DL denizens-in-waiting.
My recollections of Dick Stuart may be gilt-edged and slightly misleading at this late date, but I dreamily remember watching him powder many of his 66 homers in 1956, while playing for the Lincoln Chiefs of my home town. He later became the first big-leaguer to hit 40 or more in each league (unless I’m merely fantasizing now, which is always possible). I mention Stuart because 1. Nobody ever does; 2. I got to see him repeatedly, up-close and personal; and, 3. He is the reverse poster-child for Bill’s thesis that over-training is the primary culprit responsible for an alarming surge of muscle tears, strains, pulls and assorted injuries among so many latter-day athletes.
I would guess — and it’s a pretty educated guess — that “Dr. Strangeglove” never went within hailing distance of a set of bar-bells. He weighed 170, or thereabouts, when he stepped out of the shower. Unless he was standing at the plate, combing his hair was his most demanding physical activity. But Gawd, could he make the baseball disappear into the night sky! No dumbbell raises required, thank you (and no fielding drills either by the way).
Bill’s point, in part, is that today’s players are abusing their bodies unnecessarily, to their detriment and that of the game. He thinks they could do far worse than emulate such long-gone icons as Stan Musial and Ralph Kiner — or even string-bean sluggers like Dave Kingman. I agree totally, and so, probably, would every one of the guys whose names have popped up in this reply.
My old-geezer’s lament is that baseball in the 21st Century is an unsatisfying shadow of the game it was when we were awe-struck and appreciative kids. Even with my rose-colored spectacles sitting across the room I earnestly believe that. Bill’s latest post on this troublesome topic is another home run — and without benefit of a micro-second squandered at Triceps-R.Us! (On the other hand, I haven’t actually seen his picture. We could all be in for an embarrassing surprise.)
I think the bottom line in all this, Michael, is that loose and long muscles are better than short, tight, huge muscles. Like you said, those guys could all hit the long ball with their normal, sometimes skinny arms. And I certainly remember Dick Stuart.
Bill
Master Keedy, as usual, inundates with eloquence and analogy (but Triceps-R Us needs to have the R backward, Michael, ha ha)
But from a five year-old, Bill, you and MK and others hit on the key to the injuries: the training is too intense, especially with heavy weights. My feeling is the opposing muscles become so powerful that the resultant torque applies too much pressure. Thus, the simple act of sprinting down the line results in a hamstring pull. As Bill G. said in a previous post, we never remember any injuries like the ones today–back in the days when Kiner and Mize tied for the Home Run Crown with 51 and 40.
Also, a good point about stretching, or lack thereof, before intense action.
Mays was enormously strong with tremendous bat speed, likewise Aaron with timing and wrist action. Mickey Mantle was the quintessential slugger. Not one of them lifted heavy weights, to my knowledge.
As far as pitching injuries, over the years kids are throwing too many breaking balls growing up, which violently strains the elbow.
From the age of nine, I competed against guys 2-4 years older than me. I developed a sharp curve that broke late. The older kids looked foolish but I always “threw my arm out” every summer. With too much competition, travel leagues etc. this catches up to the tender young arm later on, as a professional pitching career is pursued.
Hey Bill. Yep, I think we’re all in agreement. Years ago I wrote a series of books on kids sports. Actually worked with Robin Roberts, the broadcaster, not the pitcher. At least her name was attached. Anyway, I learned a lot about repetitive motion injuries in kids who begin concentrating on one sport only at an early age. Not good. Kid that play them all during their formative years are much better off. Like you say, in warm climates kids can play baseball all year round and some are on two or three teams at once. Add breaking pitches and trying to light up the radar gun and it spells either disaster or Tommy John. Guys like Mays and Mantle were naturally muscled, but Williams and Musial weren’t. None found it necessary to work with weights to hit the ball long distances. Unfortunately, Mantle was injury prone for a number of reasons. But training then was more running and stretching than lifting.
Bill