Athletes and Surgery

                                                             
                                                          Athletes and Surgery

        By no means am I anything more now than a Weekend Warrior with an obsession to stay in shape. All the years of training, running, weightlifting, throwing, serving, swinging a bat or tennis racquet, swimming, etc. have had there profound effect on my body. Which is why on January 20 once more I will be taking that lonely, glasses off walk down a corridor of a surgical center in a hospital gown and an IV in my left hand.

        This time it is to repair my clavicle which has bothered me from the earlier 2015 surgery on my shoulder. This will be shoulder procedure number four. I have my knees (twice); both ankles; and a hernia; the result of a lurid attempt to hit an overhead smash in a tennis match. Orthopedic surgeons must love me.

        One thing for certain--we live in a time when these kind of surgeries have become commonplace and they return all levels of athletes to their chosen sports. And that is exactly what I am shooting for. A return to normalcy. To run again. Swim laps. Play tennis. Lift weights. All pain free other than the accumulation of years of abuse resulting in arthritis which I don't yet have but can anticipate.

        As much as I marvel what arthroscopic surgery has done for me, I think of the magic of the surgeries which bring professional athletes or those who want to be highly competitive athletes from the sidelines to the games. How they are even able to come back within a season is amazing.

        In baseball, one need not look any further than the surgery for a blown out elbow, aptly named Tommy John surgery for the left-handed pitcher who had a second, highly successful career when Dr. James Andrews determined that taking a tendon from the leg and transferring it to the elbow to replace an damaged ulnar collateral ligament with sufficient time to heal would allow a pitcher to once more pitch at a high level. The fact that both John and Andrews are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame is a flat out travesty. It seems that a significant number of elite pitchers now playing in the majors have had Tommy John surgery.

        How many times have I heard of players who tear their meniscus in some manner in the knee, only to be back competing in two weeks time post-surgery? Or that when the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL. is torn after a vicious tackle or a bad cut by a football player running at full speed, that they are back in a year after extensive rehabilitation from a reconstruction surgery similar to Tommy John surgery but this time in the knee? Abdominal tears and sports hernias are now effectively diagnosed and surgically treated, too.

        Let's not forget the physical therapists too. They toil in relative anonymity but they are critical to insuring that athletes at all levels of play can play safe and sound after their operations. PT's are unsung heroes in the realm of orthopedic surgery.

        Today arthroscopic surgery is the least invasive norm. I wish that a great player like Mickey Mantle had access to that type of surgery. He might have lasted longer (notwithstanding his rampant alcohol abuse) and hit more home runs and played center field that much more. Unfortunately he was ahead of his time--however, not in a good way.

        Doctors and athletes are now inexorably intertwined. Without advances in medical science I dare say that a sport like baseball would be still a lot like the way the game was played nearly 50 years ago.

        Absent these surgeries, I would not be dreaming of a pain-free swim or hitting a tennis ball at age 65. While I will not be under an arthroscope this time,  I will take that knowledge with me when I make that all-too-familiar trek to the cold surgery suite with the hope and promise that I will be back playing the sports I love based on the knowledge and techniques of modern medical science.

The Sports Conundrum

                                    The Sports Conundrum

       Here it is--just past mid-January and I am a tired sports fan.

       I have just watched 8 NFL playoff games, some of them with tremendous finishes that defy description (See Seattle-Minnesota, Pittsburgh-Cincinnati and Green Bay-Arizona).

       This is the midst of the college basketball season. Conference games abound. They are available on ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN News, BTN, FS 1 & 2 and sometimes on YES and SNY in a seemingly non-stop merry-go-round of compelling (and not so compelling) match ups. Plus there are a slew of women's games telecast notwithstanding UConn's seemingly unending dominance of its sport. I am even compelled on occasion to watch my alma mater, Franklin and Marshall play, telecast on the computer.

       Moreover, there is the NBA in full swing. There is the march of the Golden State Warriors to try and unseat the Chicago Bulls as the winningest regular season team. Add in the Cleveland Cavaliers with Le Bron James and the San Antonio Spurs playing exceptional ball under the radar from the Warriors. Plus checking out the locals--the improved and playoff hopeful Knicks and the woeful Nets. That's another full slate.

       So, too is the NHL in the midst of its season. The three local teams--the Rangers, Islanders and Devils are all making heavy playoff pushes.

       All of this comes after the exhausting bowl season has ended and the college football championship was decided in robust fashion, anointing Nick Saban and his Alabama Crimson Tide (again). And the New Year's Day NHL Stadium Series with Original Six rivals Montreal and Boston meeting before a sellout crowd in the New England Patriots home in Foxborough,,MA. And on the heels of the conclusion of the NFL regular season which saw my New York Jets lose to the Buffalo Bills coached by their former leader, Rex Ryan on the final Sunday of the season in early January.

      Which has led to a carousel of changes in head coaches, including the New York Giants removing Tom Coughlin and replacing him with offensive coordinator Ben Mc Adoo while Coughlin engaged the Philadelphia Eagles in talks to become their head coach, an opening created when the Eagles fired Chip Kelly who resurfaced as the new head in San Francisco with the 49'ers. And Rutgers football has a new man at the top--Chris Ash, the former defensive coordinator at national powerhouse Ohio State--whose machinations are chronicled locally on the sports pages.

       Not to be denied, baseball, while in its off season and about a month away from the start of spring training in Florida and Arizona, has grabbed headlines with the Hall of Fame announcements and free agent and arbitration signings.

      It does not get any better as the NHL, NBA and college basketball seasons come to their ends with playoffs, tournaments and March Madness to crown an NCAA champion. Only to have baseball join in with its start of the 162 game slate televised in its entirety locally and with a whole lot of ESPN, TBS and FOX/FS telecasts. The NFL will have its draft and then signings, trades and free agency.

      Oh, did I forget that the Australian Open has started for men's and women's tennis, with a short hiatus in Grand Slam events until the French Open in May?

      Mercifully, I only have a partial season ticket to Rutgers men's basketball and I attend a hockey game or two in Newark (although I am doing a bucket list trip to see the Devils play the Maple Leafs in Toronto) and I go once or twice to see the Yankees on Senior Citizen days when the prices are vastly reduced. I do add to the stress by my obsession to see a game in every MLB locale and that I do have Jets season tickets of which I get to usually 2 games a year. Could I help it that I am curiously going to see top ten-ranked Rutgers wrestle against Michigan? Or drive to Piscataway to see RU play Big Ten baseball in the spring sitting in my lawn chair beyond the outfield fence? Factor in my slavish devotion on a daily basis to ESPN's Pardon The Interruption and savants Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon formerly of the Washington Post  sports pages.

       Lest we forget the PGA and the Masters in April and the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing commences in May. It is also an Olympic year.

      Which is why, in the end, a good book, a fun movie, an enjoyable TV series or three, a fine dinner or even cleaning the house and many a nap is a necessary respite from the TV sports carnage we are exposed to.

      Just think if I had any interest in boxing, bowling, Alpine and Nordic sports, the MMA or WWE or the Kardashians...