Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports: John Baker’s comeback: Waiting (and waiting) for Tommy John

Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports Latest Big League Stew - MLB from Yahoo! Sports John Baker’s comeback: Waiting (and waiting) for Tommy John 13 May 2011, 8:38 pm After a slow rise through the minors, John Baker joined the Florida Marlins in July 2008. He hit a home run in his second major league game and quickly established himself as the team's starting catcher. His fortunes turned sour in the 2010 season, when a lingering elbow injury eventually required Tommy John ligament replacement surgery in September. We are humbled to host Baker's comeback story in an open-ended series of posts written by him. Explaining why someone needs Tommy John ligament replacement surgery is not that complicated. The UCL — or Ulnar Collateral Ligament — tears and it must be repaired. The tear results in a serious amount of pain during the act of throwing, and other movements, where your arm is bent and in a load-bearing position. For example: It hurt to brush my teeth and scratch my head. I couldn't even rest my arm on the kitchen table before the surgery. My elbow first felt funny in December 2009 when I began baseball training in preparation for the coming spring training. It took me about two weeks of playing catch at spring training before I had to say something to the trainers. The first step was to get an MRI exam with contrast dye. In typical John Baker fashion, the dye didn't take and I had to repeat the two-hour process later that day. It was a sign of things to come. When the MRI was finally read, the doctor told me to toughen up and do some CrossFit. He said I had some forearm inflammation and that I shouldn't be concerned because the pain would go away. He prescribed a potent oral cortisone called Medrol for my "forearm strain." I guess that is why my Grandpa Bill used to say, "There is a reason a doctor's business is called a practice: They're just practicing." Once the regular season started in April, I didn't feel any better. I bit my lip, sucked it up and played, but something was seriously wrong. By May, I was really struggling to keep it together. I had found a nutritionist in the Miami area that designed a specialized anti-inflammatory diet for me. It took a special diet, along with multiple non-steroid anti-inflammatory pills, pain killing/masking pills, about 45 minutes of therapy, plus 15 minutes in the 110-degree whirlpool to get me on the field. Needless to say, the trainers were getting tired of me. Midway through May, before a series against the Mets, Fredi Gonzalez (the manager) called me into his office. We had just gotten back from a road trip to Chicago and Washington, and I simply couldn't hit a fastball. My health was now substantially affecting my performance and hurting our team. Fredi convinced me to be honest with how I was feeling. He knew something was wrong; he knew what I was capable of doing on the field and he wanted me to take some time on the disabled list to figure it out. I was really sad when he got fired because, without his guidance, I never would have started on the road to recovery. In June, I tried to participate in a rehab assignment with the Jupiter Hammerheads (the Marlins' Class A team in the Gulf Coast League), but I simply couldn't throw. The Marlins sent me to Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. He took another MRI and gave me some interesting news: He was prescribing six weeks of inactivity. I was so depressed and frustrated about sitting around for those six weeks that I don't even want to think — much less write — about that time. When my inactivity ended, I began a throwing program. Four weeks into it, at the end of August, I attempted to play again. After receiving platelet-rich plasma shots and hyperbaric chamber treatments, doing an extensive throwing program and resting all of that time, the result was the same: I was in serious pain. It hurt so bad to throw, I literally didn't want to play anymore. I felt like a quitter when I called our trainer and said, "I can't do this." I'm still embarrassed by that statement. It was early September — after my fifth MRI — when Dr. Andrews walked into the waiting room and, with his southern twang remarked, "Boy, we're gonna fix you up tomorrow morning. We gotta get you right." I had Tommy John surgery the next day at 7 a.m. Follow John Baker on Twitter — @manbearwolf — and follow Big League Stew all season for his inside look at what it's really like to be a baseball player rehabilitating from a serious elbow injury. * * * Previous posts by John Baker: May 3 — Big league dream disrupted You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed.