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Can Baseball Damage Your Arm?
Aired August 22, 2003 - 13:49 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Little Leaguers, you know, could end up literally pitching themselves into the doctor's office if they aren't careful. Too many curve balls -- a lot of pressure to throw them at too young an age -- and it can turn a good arm into an injured arm when it is developing.
Our Dr. Gupta has taken a look at all of this, and he is looking at the dangers of pitching like the pros.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe Jennings has been playing baseball since he was 5. He started pitching at 12. The pain came just four years later.
JOE JENNINGS, 18-YEAR-OLD PITCHER: It was very bad. It hurt to move it. I couldn't move it in certain directions and it was very painful.
GUPTA: A torn ligament in his elbow.
JENNINGS: It just started hurting every time I would throw with any velocity.
GUPTA: Joe went to see Dr. James Andrews, an orthopedic surgeon to the pros.
JENNINGS: What he did was take the ligament from here and put it around there to make that ligament tighter, and then just stitched it back up. And I have a couple of stitches here, and then that's a scar from where he opened it up.
GUPTA: Dr. Andrews is convinced many ligament problems begin at a young age. In many cases, pitchers in youth leagues play in too many games and throw too many pitches.
JAMES WACHENDORF, 18-YEAR-OLD PITCHER: After the high school season, we played American legion team. Right after that -- then right after goes, I played in a fall league team for this perfect game that's in this league, and then I played indoor league after that. And then, I started up legion again in the spring. So, it's all year- round.
GUPTA: But now, this 18-year-old left-hander faces a year of rehab after his operation.
For others, the problem is the curve ball.
DR. JAMES ANDREWS, AMERICAN SPORTS MEDICINE INSTITUTE: You probably shouldn't throw a curve ball until you shave.
GUPTA: That's because the growth plates in the arm of a child under 14 haven't yet fused together. Throwing a curve ball requires the arm to twist unnaturally, and bones or tendons can be damaged, sometimes permanently, but sometimes you don't find out until later.
ANDREWS: A lot of these injuries don't show up in the youth league, and they may not show up until three or four years later -- a senior in high school, for example. But if you look back, that injury started at the youth level. And so, the coaches are unaware of it.
GUPTA: Dr. Andrews says parents can be another problem. Hoping for a call from the Major Leagues, they allow their kids to play too many games.
James' dad admits he did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, as a parent, you love to see your kid play. You don't want to ever turn down teams that come along wanting your kid to throw for them.
ANDREWS: They need to decide: Does he want to be a superstar when he's in the youth leagues, or doe he want to be a superstar in professional baseball?
GUPTA: He says the arm has only so many pitches in it, something parents, coaches and young players need to realize.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Boy, you really have to watch it. And there is so much pressure on these kids to throw those curveballs as they go up the ranks.
How serious, though, are the injuries? I mean, are you talking about career-ending at that early stage potentially?
GUPTA: It potentially could be, and teenagers don't bounce back from these operations as well as adults. The Tommy John operation that they were talking about there, that was the L.A. Dodger that actually did bounce back.
Take a look now -- throwing these curve balls, Miles -- take a look at what happens to the arm there. These arms are not fully developed. The growth plates are still growing. Kids have a lot harder time actually bouncing back from these injuries.
O'BRIEN: Well, and it really is a very unnaturally motion, as opposed to a fastball where you're kind of going straight through.
GUPTA: That's right. O'BRIEN: I tried to show the motion but Kyra's grabbing me because she doesn't want my arm to be injured.
Anyway, Doctor Sanjay Gupta, enjoy your vacation. Thank you for stopping by. We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 22, 2003 - 13:49 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Little Leaguers, you know, could end up literally pitching themselves into the doctor's office if they aren't careful. Too many curve balls -- a lot of pressure to throw them at too young an age -- and it can turn a good arm into an injured arm when it is developing.
Our Dr. Gupta has taken a look at all of this, and he is looking at the dangers of pitching like the pros.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe Jennings has been playing baseball since he was 5. He started pitching at 12. The pain came just four years later.
JOE JENNINGS, 18-YEAR-OLD PITCHER: It was very bad. It hurt to move it. I couldn't move it in certain directions and it was very painful.
GUPTA: A torn ligament in his elbow.
JENNINGS: It just started hurting every time I would throw with any velocity.
GUPTA: Joe went to see Dr. James Andrews, an orthopedic surgeon to the pros.
JENNINGS: What he did was take the ligament from here and put it around there to make that ligament tighter, and then just stitched it back up. And I have a couple of stitches here, and then that's a scar from where he opened it up.
GUPTA: Dr. Andrews is convinced many ligament problems begin at a young age. In many cases, pitchers in youth leagues play in too many games and throw too many pitches.
JAMES WACHENDORF, 18-YEAR-OLD PITCHER: After the high school season, we played American legion team. Right after that -- then right after goes, I played in a fall league team for this perfect game that's in this league, and then I played indoor league after that. And then, I started up legion again in the spring. So, it's all year- round.
GUPTA: But now, this 18-year-old left-hander faces a year of rehab after his operation.
For others, the problem is the curve ball.
DR. JAMES ANDREWS, AMERICAN SPORTS MEDICINE INSTITUTE: You probably shouldn't throw a curve ball until you shave.
GUPTA: That's because the growth plates in the arm of a child under 14 haven't yet fused together. Throwing a curve ball requires the arm to twist unnaturally, and bones or tendons can be damaged, sometimes permanently, but sometimes you don't find out until later.
ANDREWS: A lot of these injuries don't show up in the youth league, and they may not show up until three or four years later -- a senior in high school, for example. But if you look back, that injury started at the youth level. And so, the coaches are unaware of it.
GUPTA: Dr. Andrews says parents can be another problem. Hoping for a call from the Major Leagues, they allow their kids to play too many games.
James' dad admits he did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, as a parent, you love to see your kid play. You don't want to ever turn down teams that come along wanting your kid to throw for them.
ANDREWS: They need to decide: Does he want to be a superstar when he's in the youth leagues, or doe he want to be a superstar in professional baseball?
GUPTA: He says the arm has only so many pitches in it, something parents, coaches and young players need to realize.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Boy, you really have to watch it. And there is so much pressure on these kids to throw those curveballs as they go up the ranks.
How serious, though, are the injuries? I mean, are you talking about career-ending at that early stage potentially?
GUPTA: It potentially could be, and teenagers don't bounce back from these operations as well as adults. The Tommy John operation that they were talking about there, that was the L.A. Dodger that actually did bounce back.
Take a look now -- throwing these curve balls, Miles -- take a look at what happens to the arm there. These arms are not fully developed. The growth plates are still growing. Kids have a lot harder time actually bouncing back from these injuries.
O'BRIEN: Well, and it really is a very unnaturally motion, as opposed to a fastball where you're kind of going straight through.
GUPTA: That's right. O'BRIEN: I tried to show the motion but Kyra's grabbing me because she doesn't want my arm to be injured.
Anyway, Doctor Sanjay Gupta, enjoy your vacation. Thank you for stopping by. We appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
