New book details struggle of Tommy John recovery

Jeff Passan has created a literary daily double.

In Passan’s book, “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports,” the Yahoo! Sports baseball columnist has made what is essentially a medical topic readable. At the same time, he has done enough scholastic research to make this book credible.

The core issue is the elbow — or more precisely, the ulnar collateral ligament. The ulnar collateral ligament can snap, even in the right and left elbows of the some of the world’s most valuable athletes, Major League pitchers.

The standard treatment for this injury is ligament replacement surgery, which we all know as Tommy John surgery, after the first pitcher who had the procedure. Pioneering orthopedic surgeon Frank Jobe performed the operation on Sept. 25, 1974. John subsequently returned to the mound and enjoyed remarkable success. But this medical advance, Passan writes, was not an unmixed blessing:

“Tommy John surgery, it turned out, was a paradox, the procedure that worked too well. It lulled baseball into a false sense of security, and by the time the sport realized what had happened, an epidemic was on its hands.”

This situation was not made less complex by the inherently competitive nature of Major League Baseball.

“Baseball nevertheless has fostered an environment in which all 30 teams treat pitchers’ health as proprietary information instead of banding together to solve the sport’s greatest mystery,” Passan writes.

Passan spends a significant portion of the book reporting on various individuals who claim to have the secret to protecting the UCL and thus prolonging pitching careers. Some of their research looks promising. These people may be medical/baseball geniuses. Others appear to be indulging in high-tech …

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