Play Ball: Striking Out Shoulder/Elbow Injuries and Other Common Baseball Pitfalls

Helping Rochester’s baseball community better understand how to prevent and recognize signs of common repetitive injuries associated with playing the game is the subject of an evening lecture sponsored by University Sports Medicine (USM).  Featuring talks from five sports medicine experts, including Tony Leo, ATC, head athletic trainer for the Rochester Red Wings, the free seminar will be held 7 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 7 at University Sports Medicine, 4901 Lac DeVille Blvd. 

Geared toward coaches, officials, parents and athletic trainers, the talks will cover shoulder and elbow injuries, overall injury prevention, and body conditioning for baseball. The evening also will include a discussion on performance enhancing substances.

Increasingly, sports medicine physicians are seeing younger and younger patients with injuries that were once only common in college level and above playing. 

“Unfortunately, today our kids are pushed to perform at ever higher levels, and to super-specialize in one sport,” said Michael Maloney, M.D., chief of USM and team physician of the Rochester Red Wings. “This single-sport focus results in overuse of muscles, tendons and joints, and in baseball, this most often translates into shoulder and elbow injuries that can plague a person throughout their lifetime if they are not careful.”

Andy Duncan, P.T., A.T.C., director of sports rehabilitation at USM, added that athletes often try to immediately achieve the level they played at in the previous summer, which is not realistic after a long Rochester winter.

“Couple that with overuse and improper technique, and all the ingredients are in play for an injury,” Duncan said.

The seminar will specifically address:

“Kids appear to turn to steroids because they feel enormous pressure to be faster, stronger, better – all the time,” said Mark Mirabelli, M.D., sports medicine specialist at USM. “This seminar will help athletes understand the very real dangers of steroids, and provide them with tips on how to safely boost their performance.”

Participants are encouraged to call to register at 341-9150. University Sports Medicine is located in Building D on the Clinton Crossings Medical campus.