Playing Hurt: Pressure to throw curveball leads young pitcher to major surgery - twice

Broc Haymon cannot remember a time when he was not throwing a baseball.

He started pitching to his father before he was old enough for kindergarten. He started pitching in games, for local Little League teams, at age 8.

Haymon’s passion cost him. By age 16, his pitching arm was so worn that he needed major reconstructive surgery on his elbow. He later needed the procedure a second time.

Now 19, the once promising player recruited by big-name colleges is doing all he can just to get back on the pitcher’s mound.

Haymon’s injury was once unheard of outside big league baseball. The procedure to fix it, ulner collateral ligament replacement, is commonly called Tommy John surgery for the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who was the first major league player to have the operation more than 30 years ago.

But Tommy John surgery is now increasingly common among younger pitchers, a trend that sports experts say is the result of young athletes working too hard with too little attention paid to avoiding injury.

Alabama Sports Medicine and Orthopedic, one of the nation’s leading sports orthopedic practices, did just nine Tommy John procedures on high school students between 1996 and 1999. Between 2003 and 2006 it did 148 procedures on students.

That outcome wasn’t likely on Haymon’s mind during his early Little League success, when he captured the notice of local coaches who helped him work on form and delivery.

“I was always pretty good,” he said. “When you are little, you watch like the Astros, and you dream of getting a chance to play.”

Pursuing his dream, Haymon learned how to throw a curve ball, a breaking pitch that gives young batters fits but creates twisting pressure on the elbow. He started using the pitch in games by age 12. About that time he started feeling pain in his arm.

Haymon said he knows he pushed himself too hard.

“Throwing a curve ball early was my biggest flaw,” he said.

Bridge City Little League officials know about the risks of young players throwing curveballs, said Brad Thibodaux, the league’s vice president.

“It’s definitely something we don’t encourage,” he said. “We’ve noticed it from time to time, but it doesn’t happen that often.”

Four years after his first curveball, Haymon was visiting Dr. David Lintner in Houston with a complete tear in the main ligament connecting his upper and lower arm bones. The injury required Tommy John surgery in October 2004. Haymon said he realizes now he did not take rehabilitation seriously enough.