Padecky: Casa Grande pitcher’s journey offers perspective
On March 2, 2014, Justin Bruihl was very clear on how he saw himself every time he threw a baseball. “I felt invincible,” said the left-hander. And why not? Bruihl was a 16-year-old athlete who owned, according to his dad, a rubber arm. Bruihl’s fastball reached mid-80s. There might have been some pain in that left elbow but, hey, when you’re 16 and invincible, the road ahead is streamlined with sunshine.
A day later the rain and thunder and lightning came. The Casa Grande junior threw a pitch in a game. The pain increased. He left the game. Just to be safe. No worries. Sixteen-year-old boys have a remarkable sense of certainty and security. Especially the ones with rubber arms.
“A couple hours later my pitching arm was shaking,” Bruihl said, “and it felt extremely weak.”
Thus began a journey for Bruihl that has become all too familiar and far too alarming. He became a statistic that led Major League Baseball in 2014 to develop a website, PitchSmart.org. It is because of athletes like Bruihl that Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa will be conducting, for the first time, three two-hour seminars in the coming months that focus on injury prevention for baseball players. Former San Francisco Giants pitcher Noah Lowry will be there.
Bruihl underwent Tommy John surgery, the reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament. Bruihl could think he is good company. According to PitchSmart, 25 percent of all MLB pitchers and 15 percent of minor league pitchers have undergone Tommy John surgery. Since 1999, 235 MLB pitchers have had the operation.
Bruihl is not alone. That’s the bad news.
“I asked the surgeon who operated on Justin (Giants orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kenneth Akizuki) how many of these he does a year,” said the father, Gene Bruihl. “He said he does 30-40 Tommy Johns a year - on high school players.”
Dad was stunned to silence.
“I was in shock,” Bruihl said. “I thought Tommy John was happening just to college and pro pitchers. And those 30-40, that’s just with one surgeon.”
KIDS FACE PRESSURE TO WIN
Money creates momentum and urgency. In 2014, $665 million was spent on MLB players going on the disabled list. But the creation of PitchSmart and the urgency local outfits like Kaiser Permanente feel in addressing this issue reveals a deep concern that damage in pitching arms begins long before a pitcher signs a pro contract. Tommy John, the pitcher after which the surgery is named, has said many times the problem begins with how kids are used - or abused.
“I call them the MTK kids,” said Dr. Todd Weitzenberg, Kaiser’s Chief of Sports Medicine who will lead the hospital’s seminars. “MTK stands for Meal Ticket Kids. For me, the problem started in the genesis of the single-sport athlete. We have the Tiger (Woods) parents out there. Now you have fall ball, and travel ball and showcases. The pressure to win is extreme.”
The age of specialization finds children in the cross hairs of pleasing their parents and coaches, hanging with their buddies and - this is the gas that fuels all - wanting to feel worthwhile by winning.
“It’s a temptation that’s hard to resist,” Dr. Weitzenberg said of the off-the-field influences. “Parents will hear of kids playing in multiple leagues and with additional instruction and they’ll say to themselves, ‘My God, we (their son) don’t stand a chance.’ So they go along with it because they are keeping up with the Joneses. The emphasis to win in our society has come at the cost of our children, whose bodies are still developing.”
While it’s tempting to target travel baseball as a culprit, it is by itself not a red flag.
“I’ve had travel teams for 11 years,” said Petaluma’s Dave Ayala, who manages travel teams for the North Bay Baseball Association. “I have never had a Tommy John pitcher.”
PLAN TO PROTECT FROM INJURY
Ayala recognizes the validity of what surgeon Dr. James Andrews advocates. Andrews is the internationally known and admired voice in sports orthopedic medicine. Founder of the American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI), Andrews and his team of advisors have laid out a plan full of common sense to protect children from injury. His first criterion is also Ayala’s.
“I make sure my kids always have four months off every year,” said Ayala, taking into account his pitcher playing for other teams, including high school squads.
According to ASMI, a pitcher who competes for more than eight months in a year is five times more likely to suffer an injury requiring surgery than those who do not.
Another Andrews mandate - do not pitch on consecutive days - seems obvious in its message. So are other ASMI guidelines, suggestions so logical it would seem easy to follow and difficult to dispute.
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