Post by Mr mastodon farm on Nov 13, 2014 15:07:20 GMT -5
PHOENIX -- Concerned by the number of elbow injuries to pitchers at all levels from youth leagues to the big leagues, including rising stars like Jose Fernandez, Matt Moore and Matt Harvey, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig ordered a study to address causes and solutions.
The result is Pitch Smart, a comprehensive resource for safe pitching practices which provides a series of practical, age-appropriate guidelines to help players, parents and coaches avoid overuse injuries. It's available at pitchsmart.org.
In partnership with USA Baseball, the program was unveiled Wednesday at the annual General Managers Meetings at the Arizona Biltmore.
"We did some extensive research," MLB executive vice president, baseball operations Joe Torre said. "We consulted experts in the medical field. It aims to address this issue from the ground floor.
"For the first time, our industry is going to make recommendations on all the various issues associated with elbow injuries. We feel very comfortable and confident that Pitch Smart will lead us in the right direction."
Added Chris Marinak, senior vice president, economics and league strategy: "We spent a lot of time trying to understand the information that was out there in the medical community on pitching injuries in baseball and elbow injuries. We realized quickly there hadn't been a consensus opinion from the medical community about what were some of the risk factors and what were some of the causes of the elbow injuries we were seeing, both at the amateur level and the professional level."
The guidelines were assembled after consultation with an elite medical team led by Dr. Gary Green, the medical director for MLB.
The goal of the program is to provide information about risk factors, answer frequently asked questions and give people more information about recovery times, when surgery is needed, and give advice to young players about how often to pitch at various ages and keep an appropriate workload and be safe and healthy when pitching.
"As the national governing body for the sport, player safety is of the utmost importance to all of us at USA Baseball," said Paul Seiler, executive director/CEO of USA Baseball. "With the support of MLB, USA Baseball looks forward to working collaboratively with its national member organizations on delivering a better and safer culture to the many participants in our great game."
Added Marinak: "In the long run, this is just the beginning. We hope to work more closely with the baseball organizations to communicate this information to their players to help implement some of these guidelines in their seasons and tournaments and just get the information out to administrators and coaches. So it's not just the web site, but it's actually a program and an interactive dialogue with Major League Baseball, USA Baseball and the various organizations."
The medical advisory board for Pitch Smart that will work along with Green, in alphabetical order: Christopher Ahmad, head team physician of the New York Yankees; James Andrews of the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center and the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Ala.; Michael Ciccotti, head team physician of the Philadelphia Phillies; Stan Conte, vice president of medical services for the Los Angeles Dodgers; Keith Dugger, head athletic trainer of the Colorado Rockies; Neal ElAttrache, head team physician of the Dodgers; Stephen Fealy, orthopaedic consultant to the Major League Baseball Players Association; Glenn Fleisig of the American Sports Medicine Institute and chairman of the USA Baseball Medical Safety Committee; Jan Fronek, team physician for the San Diego Padres; Bert Mandelbaum, the director of research for MLB; Anthony Romeo, team physician for the Chicago White Sox.
The result is Pitch Smart, a comprehensive resource for safe pitching practices which provides a series of practical, age-appropriate guidelines to help players, parents and coaches avoid overuse injuries. It's available at pitchsmart.org.
In partnership with USA Baseball, the program was unveiled Wednesday at the annual General Managers Meetings at the Arizona Biltmore.
"We did some extensive research," MLB executive vice president, baseball operations Joe Torre said. "We consulted experts in the medical field. It aims to address this issue from the ground floor.
"For the first time, our industry is going to make recommendations on all the various issues associated with elbow injuries. We feel very comfortable and confident that Pitch Smart will lead us in the right direction."
Added Chris Marinak, senior vice president, economics and league strategy: "We spent a lot of time trying to understand the information that was out there in the medical community on pitching injuries in baseball and elbow injuries. We realized quickly there hadn't been a consensus opinion from the medical community about what were some of the risk factors and what were some of the causes of the elbow injuries we were seeing, both at the amateur level and the professional level."
The guidelines were assembled after consultation with an elite medical team led by Dr. Gary Green, the medical director for MLB.
The goal of the program is to provide information about risk factors, answer frequently asked questions and give people more information about recovery times, when surgery is needed, and give advice to young players about how often to pitch at various ages and keep an appropriate workload and be safe and healthy when pitching.
"As the national governing body for the sport, player safety is of the utmost importance to all of us at USA Baseball," said Paul Seiler, executive director/CEO of USA Baseball. "With the support of MLB, USA Baseball looks forward to working collaboratively with its national member organizations on delivering a better and safer culture to the many participants in our great game."
Added Marinak: "In the long run, this is just the beginning. We hope to work more closely with the baseball organizations to communicate this information to their players to help implement some of these guidelines in their seasons and tournaments and just get the information out to administrators and coaches. So it's not just the web site, but it's actually a program and an interactive dialogue with Major League Baseball, USA Baseball and the various organizations."
The medical advisory board for Pitch Smart that will work along with Green, in alphabetical order: Christopher Ahmad, head team physician of the New York Yankees; James Andrews of the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center and the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Ala.; Michael Ciccotti, head team physician of the Philadelphia Phillies; Stan Conte, vice president of medical services for the Los Angeles Dodgers; Keith Dugger, head athletic trainer of the Colorado Rockies; Neal ElAttrache, head team physician of the Dodgers; Stephen Fealy, orthopaedic consultant to the Major League Baseball Players Association; Glenn Fleisig of the American Sports Medicine Institute and chairman of the USA Baseball Medical Safety Committee; Jan Fronek, team physician for the San Diego Padres; Bert Mandelbaum, the director of research for MLB; Anthony Romeo, team physician for the Chicago White Sox.
