TWELVE BASEBALL TEAMS ARE ALL INJURED?

TWELVE BASEBALL TEAMS ARE ALL INJURED?

As of today, August 22, 2021 there are 319 baseball players on the Major League Injury List. This means that they are not allowed to play for a minimum of ten days after being placed on the list and it may be extended to sixty or more days. This is an average of ten injured players a team for each of the thirty big league teams. In fact, the 319 players who are on the injured list represent the equivalent of TWELVE fully-staffed major league teams. 319 injured players of the 750 roster players are not earning their keep. 43% of the best ball players in the nation are injured! I think that is a pretty clear indication of a major problem.

Further inquiry showed that 184 were incapacitated by injuries that affected some component of the arm - the shoulder, biceps, elbow, wrist, hand or finger. 58% of the injuries were related to the act of throwing a baseball. 57 injuries to the hip, knee, ankle, achilles tendon, or foot comprised another 18% of the total. 241 of the 319 injuries involved the arm or the leg of a player. 35 injuries involved an oblique muscle or back issue. A variety of other conditions that involved such things as the eye, toe, covid protocols, family issues or undisclosed reasons make up the rest of the reasons.

I find these numbers astounding for a number of reasons. At a time when professional athletes are probably in better physical condition than at any other time, why are there so many injuries? l think the answer is quite obvious. Athletes are trying to exert the human body well beyond the limits that our physiology is designed to handle. Pitchers throw harder than ever and a pitcher throwing a baseball over 100 mph is a common occurrence everyday. The human arm is not designed to withstand the stress, strain and torque applied to the bones, muscles and ligaments of the arm, elbow and shoulder. Thus we have at least 150 pitchers who are injured as a result. I don’t think it is rocket science. Even with the best medical trainers, equipment, technology and science, the human arm is only capable of a certain amount of abuse.

Leg, abdominal, and back injuries are another example of exerting the body beyond its limits. A major league ball player has the potential to become a multi-millionaire if they can excel at the game. Thus they throw harder, run harder and swing at the ball harder in order to become elite. And “elite” is where the money is. The players are prepared to ruin their bodies for the rest of their life if they can have one or even two exceptional years that ultimately leads to huge contracts. A tiny percentage of players reach that pinnacle but at what expense? Two of the biggest contracts issued in the past two years were to Mookie Betts ( $365 million) and Francisco Lindor ($341 million). They grabbed the Golden Ring and won the jackpot. Both are currently on the injured list for the first time in their careers and after a major injury does the body ever completely recover? My contention is  that a human body can only withstand so much abuse before it starts to become susceptible to more and more breakdowns. Time will tell.

Many players are placed on the injured list as a “precaution” rather than risk further injury. A strained muscle or a sore arm or a twisted ankle would never have forced a ball player out of the game even a few decades ago. Al Rosen played an entire season with a broken index finger and was happy to compete. Today’s players seem to be motivated more by a big payday down the road so will be happy to sit out active completion while a minor boo-boo heals.

Major League sports has become the Holy Grail to wealth. Develop a skill, exploit it to the maximum, achieve fleeting success and if you can earn the multi-million dollar contract before your body betrays you, then you are set for life. Future chronic health issues, walking with a limp, major surgeries be damned. You are a winner?