World Series Edition
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BASEBALL DIGEST WORLD SERIES EDITION A Special Publication of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP By Abe J. Schear Gary Lourie October 2016 “The Doctor’s View” * * * Schear: Here we are with Gary Lourie. actually didn’t play it. I actually played One of the most overlooked groups of So, you grew up where? lacrosse in college, but fell in love with people involved with a baseball team is I grew up in Syracuse, New York. Syracuse and fell in love with the Chiefs. the medical team, not the trainer, but the Tell me what your first memories were At that point, just about everybody in doctors who tend to injuries large and of baseball. that area loved the Yankees, so I grew small. Their office lobbies are filled with Probably, growing up in Syracuse, up a huge Yankees fan. Interestingly players from throughout the team’s entire baseball was not quite as prevalent sport enough, my father, who grew up in a tiny organization. as other sports like hockey and lacrosse town in South Carolina, fell in love with Injuries from hit balls, from quick were. So, actually I grew up playing the Yankees because at that time that’s turns, from slides (head-first comes to football and lacrosse. I played lacrosse what they listened to on the radio. So mind). Injuries from over-use and under- in college, but early on started to take a he was a huge Yankees fan, ended up in preparation. The doctor’s task is to mend, love for baseball because the Yankees’ Syracuse, ended up watching the Chiefs. to predict and to analyze. Why is the player AAA team was in Syracuse, the Syracuse That’s basically where I found my love always hurt? Should we trade a player or Chiefs. That was not far from where I for baseball. for a player? grew up, and my dad was a physician, Bobby Cox’s pretty minimal major The Atlanta Braves are fortunate that they the team physician for Syracuse league career was with the Yankees. have a number of doctors and I was lucky University, but he also helped out with Correct. to have one of them, Gary Lourie, agree to the Chiefs. Actually, believe it or not, at He played one season, maybe in the be interviewed. He is also a big fan and his that time Bobby Cox was our manager. ‘60s for the Yankees. A really bad window into the sport of baseball is unique Bobby Cox was the manager of the Yankee team. And he was a third and his opinions are insightful. I know you Syracuse Chiefs when I was a little baseman, as I remember. That may be will enjoy his perspectives on the sport. kid going to games with my father, not wrong. knowing that probably 20-30 years later No, I think you’re right. I can remember I’d be the team physician for the Braves that. He was a phenomenal manager, * * * with Bobby Cox right here. and even then he was very lively when Really? he would manage a game. That was one of Bobby’s first jobs. He See, you got to meet him when he was had played in the Yankee organization … and decided to manage. If Syracuse Actually, I met him briefly more as a kid wasn’t the first, it was close to the first getting a baseball signed but never really and that kind of propelled him after that. had any kind of relationship with him Going to those games back then, because until I worked with the Braves here in Syracuse was a small town, basically it Atlanta. was Syracuse University football and That’s quite a circular route. Did you Syracuse Chiefs, and just about every get to go out on the field when your Abe J. Schear is an attorney with Arnall night we could get away, my dad was dad was the doctor? Golden Gregory LLP and is a member of either working the game or I could go They would not allow us to go on the the firm’s Real Estate Group. Contact Abe down there with friends of mine. That’s field, not even in the dugout. That’s at 404.873.8752 or [email protected]. how I got exposed to baseball first. I pretty much still the rule today. When A r n a l l Go l d e n G r e g o r y L L P | October 2016 I work the Braves here, they’re see a player go in that way, because the injury pattern can be. They do listen very careful who is allowed into the the management of an injury to a torn to us. That’s not to say it’s difficult if clubhouse, and certainly not at all into ligament in a thumb, to a dislocated the player is in a contract year versus the dugout. Sometimes in Orlando, shoulder, to a head injury, to a neck a non-contract year. There are a lot of during spring training, you’ll have guests injury, and yet we push it and we push factors that come into it and how they come in there, but in those days, these it and they say they won’t do it and then do it, including the agent they have. In stands, these fields, were very small. they do it. In the heat of the game, that’s the end, they realize that they can’t come Even like today, with minor league going to be their chance to get on base back until they’re healthy. And most baseball, you can get real close to it, but more. It’s a challenge to take care of of the time in baseball they try to come there you got really close to it. baseball players, but it’s also the most back when they’re not healthy. If you You’re really a specialist today, but rewarding sport to take care of because take somebody like Wisler last night with your father was what kind of doctor? the way you approach games, the staff maybe an oblique injury, you have to be My father was a neurosurgeon, so he you have, the trainers you have, it is an so careful because if they try to come was really a specialist. But in baseball, incredibly rewarding experience. back too quickly, it can only prolong the that covered every aspect of the spine, It’s a long season, too. In some cases recovery. So they do listen to us very the upper extremities, pretty much every you’ve got time to get people healed carefully. injury you had ultimately could be and get them back on the field, I When I grew up, I didn’t even know somehow brought back to the back or the imagine. that pitchers and players had oblique core muscles, like an oblique injury in a It’s incredible. You’re right. There are muscles. I never heard of that injury pitcher. And again, at that time too, even 160+ games, plus there’s a whole spring until – who was it that injured their like now when I cover a Braves game training going into it. The problem with oblique some years ago that was being primarily a hand and wrist / upper it is you have a lot of time to get them out for so long? Chipper Jones or extremity surgeon, we still cover every back, but any injury you have in baseball somebody injured an oblique, and that aspect of the body. Three of us cover – for instance a blister in a pitcher can was the first time I knew that that was the Braves that are orthopedic surgeons. be incapacitating. You can spend two or a muscle. Each of us kind of has our own specialty. three hours going over it and they miss It’s a tough injury. It’s called an a start. Whereas if you have that injury abdominal strain, an oblique, an Back then, there were probably even to a catcher, you basically put a band- intercostal. But in a pitcher, it’s fewer doctors covering more areas aid on it and they’d be playing. So the incapacitating. It could be twelve of the body. I’m sure you know the injury they have is really dependent on weeks out. And in a position player, challenge in baseball, and the reward the player that it occurs to. Every time it’s probably a little bit less. I definitely that comes with it, is that it’s probably they have an injury, even if it’s a simple think there’s been an epidemic of one of the most difficult sports to take fracture like Mallex Smith has right now, obliques. I think you’re right. And I care of in terms of injury because the you have the fracture and then it takes don’t know if we’re just recognizing injury spectrum is so diverse. Football – a long time to heal. During that time, them more, diagnosing them more, or because I take care of the football team all their other baseball related muscles there’s something different in the way at Georgia Tech – it’s pretty clear there’s really get out of shape. So once that the game is being played. You just can’t believe a simple oblique muscle, how it can really drop somebody to their knees. “I think that you’re born with a certain amount While we’re on this – I want to drop back to when you grew up a little of pitches that you can throw.” bit – but if a baseball team like the Braves is looking to trade for a player or sign a player, and that player’s an injury, there is a collision, there’s injury is healed, even if it’s a fracture, it been injured previously at whatever something that comes out of it and you almost takes that same amount of time team they were on, do the doctors have to take care of it.