Matt Horn: Wait for it, elbows join concussions as injuries likely to come
Many spectators wince every time the football is snapped.
Maybe their son is on the field. Maybe it’s because they know there could be a nasty collision at any moment.
Most everybody winces after a huge hit. Few even notice the heads that converge near the line of scrimmage on every play.
Concussions can be a regrettable consequence of football.
That’s why kids should wait until they’re teenagers to play tackle football. Their brains are still developing as youngsters.
A baseball pitcher throwing in the high 90s is no longer particularly impressive. Everybody’s doing it.
Spin rate is now an attractive variable for prospects. Along with a fastball and breaking ball, many pitchers also have Tommy John surgery in the mix.
High school prospects, college draft picks such as Detroit’s Casey Mize and veterans like Houston’s Justin Verlander, the ligament transplant elbow surgery knows no outlier.
Throwing downward off a mound with arms and legs flailing, trying to use your wrist and fingers to manipulate a small ball after combining motions in an arguably violent fashion is a funky proposition. Anything where you end up nearly upside down, with your foot above your head has to be slightly dangerous for someone.
Knee up, arm dragging in front of your body before it snaps a pitch. While everything is jerking and rotating trying to create a human fulcrum.
If you can repeat the delivery consistently, you might remain healthy? Unless of course your habits are poor when it comes to durability to begin with.
It might help if your innings are limited. But how often can you pitch?
There is no template. Just as you can’t eliminate concussions from football, you can’t ensure a baseball arm will endure.
In fact, head and arm injuries will occur. At any time.
Maybe youths should stick to fastballs while their bodies are growing, finishing middle school before adding secondary pitches. No junk for kids?
Usually a good rule of thumb. Still, nobody knows the true elixir.
Thankfully, Tommy John surgery has a high success rate. Verlander, 39, is a contender to win another Cy Young Award during his first full season following the procedure.
Continued suffering from generation of CTE is a possible development following repeated blows to the head. The NFL, although often criticized, now tries to minimize concussions through education and rule adaptations.
Arm injuries are obviously a bit different. Temporary or not, if you’re a baseball spectator, it’s getting hard to watch all the limbs blow out.
If there are opportunities, it will happen. Especially if you keep doing it.
You might have to wait a little longer, or at least older to see it on the mound compared to football. But when is safe, because arm injuries are imminent as well.
It's becoming baseball's version of a concussion in terms of trying to predict the next one. It's enough to make you wince, on every pitch.
mhorn@gannett.com
419-307-4892
Twitter: @MatthewHornNH
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Matt Horn: Concussions, elbow injuries likely to occur
