SPORTS SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015 Cubs to start season, missing beloved bleachers CHICAGO: Rooting for a baseball team that has not Yellon, 58, editor of the Bleed Cubbie Blue blog, com- park in one of his propeller-topped hats. won a World Series since 1908, the Chicago Cubs’ pared the uproar over renovations to the controversy The Cubs had the third-highest average ticket price famous bleacher bums have at least always had a over lights being installed for night games in 1988. in baseball last year, at $44.16, after the Boston Red chance to party in Wrigley Field’s outfield stands. But “It’ll be kind of different, but it’s still baseball,” said Sox, who last won the World Series in 2013, and the when the 2015 season opens on Sunday, the more Yellon, who will sit somewhere else until his old spot is New York Yankees, who last won in 2009, according to than 5,000 general admission bleacher seats will not ready. Jerry Pritikin, known as the “Bleacher Preacher” the Team Marketing Report. Cubs fans like Pritikin be there for fans who like to come early and engage in for his habit of converting out-of-town spectators into have learned to be patient. When the team last won beer-fueled speculation over how the Cubs will lose Cubs fans, said the park changed for the worse start- the National League pennant 70 years ago, Pritikin’s this time. ing with night games and accelerating because of father told him he was too young to see the World Weather-related delays in rebuilding the bleachers, overpriced seats. “The majority of people like me can’t Series, but they would go next time. “I heard the part of a planned $375 million renovation of the 101- afford to go to games anymore,” said Pritikin, 78, who expression ‘wait until next year’ for the first time in year-old ballpark, mean its left-field benches will not will spend opening day walking around outside the 1946,” Pritikin recalled, laughing ruefully. —Reuters be ready until mid-May and right-field seats until mid- June. Many bleachers season ticket-holders say they will not go to a game until the outfield benches are back. “I go by myself. When I get there, there will be people I like to spend time with,” said Holly Swyers. “The fact that it won’t be there in April - it makes it not feel right.” The Cubs have offered bleachers ticket-holders a chance to get a credit while the section is unavailable, or relocate. Cubs spokesman Julian Green, who called the bleacher reconstruction “a small inconvenience,” could not say how many have taken other seats and how many will wait out the construction. Wrigley’s ivy- covered outfield walls, hand-operated scoreboard, bleachers and rooftop spectators across the streets are familiar images to audiences watching games tele- vised from the stadium, a city historic landmark. The bleachers have been celebrated in books and the 1977 play “Bleacher Bums.” The Cubs say they need to modernize Wrigley to stay competitive, but some of the planned renova- tions have drawn criticism, and owners of rooftop bars have sued the team because they say a new video board will block their customers’ view into the stadi- um. A federal judge sided with the Cubs on Thursday. Swyers, author of “Wrigley Regulars: Finding Community in the Bleachers,” said the experience can- not be reproduced elsewhere in Wrigley and fears oth- er changes like a noisy Jumbotron could mar the CHICAGO: Construction continues on renovations around Wrigley Field’s center field in atmosphere of the “Friendly Confines.” “The things Chicago. When fans arrive for the Chicago Cubs’ baseball season opener tomorrow, against that made it a cathedral and an attraction in and of the archrival St Louis Cardinals, they will get their first real look at the most visible phase of itself are kind of getting eroded,” she said. a massive renovation project. —AP But another bleachers season ticket-holder, Al Rodriguez, Yankees aim Elbow breakdowns spur for peaceful coexistence NEW YORK: Lies, cover-ups, and cheating seemed destined MLB to set up new study to lead to a messy divorce between Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees, but the warring parties are heading into NEW YORK: The plague of elbow injuries struck again in spring training John cases. She talked about “pillar strength” and breathing. “It all starts the 2015 season hoping for peaceful coexistence. Rodriguez, with Texas ace Yu Darvish and young Zack Wheeler of the New York Mets with breathing. Part of our evaluation is checking their breathing still owed $61 million from a record 10-year $270 million the latest key pitchers to fall, and Major League Baseball wants to know mechanics,” Walters said. “A chest-breathing athlete is set up for an upper renewal with the Yankees, sued the Yankees, team doctors, why. “The last three or four years, we’ve seen an increase of Tommy John extremity injury. The diaphragm also has a role in spinal security.” Dr Carl Major League Baseball and the Players Association in 2013 injuries at the major league level,” Chris Marinak, MLB’s senior vice presi- Nissen, who worked on an MLB grant, tested college pitchers at his lab to before accepting a one-year doping ban. dent for economics and league strategy, told Reuters. “That trend is cer- measure the stress from different types of pitches. His motion studies After missing the playoffs the last two years, the Yankees tainly concerning to us.” found that curve balls and other breaking pitches put less stress on desperately need some hitting from A-Rod, who has been a Propelling a baseball at speeds over 95 miles an hour, or snapping off a elbows and shoulders than fastballs. model citizen during spring training, batting over .300 with sharp-dropping slider naturally stresses the arm, but the rate of injury is “The curveball is thrown about 10 mph slower and therefore going to three homers and no complaints. The Yanks had felt betrayed alarming. A survey of MLB pitchers found that 25 percent of them had at put less stress on the elbow,” said Nissen, founder of Elite Sports Medicine by Rodriguez after lavishing riches upon him as the man on some point in their career undergone Tommy John surgery, named for the at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Nissen, who placed dozens of track to become baseball’s clean Home Run King only to pitcher who in 1974 was the first to have his torn ulnar collateral ligament reflected balls on his subjects and used 12 high speed cameras to meas- learn later of doping escapades by the slugger, dubbed by reconstructed. Research has pointed to excessive stress on young amateur ure stresses on the body during delivery of pitches, said proper mechanics the tabloids as “A-Fraud.” Well known divorce lawyer Raoul pitchers as starting damage to the elbow, and initiatives have been under- was essential. “The true shoulder turn to the pelvis ... when that’s not con- Felder said you often see battling partners carry on together taken to address that with “Pitch Safe” recommendations by orthopedic trolled that actually puts a huge increase in the stress on the shoulder and for their mutual benefit. surgeons. the elbow,” he said. The motion tests show which pitches stress a particu- “Sometimes the president and his wife have a business Now the focus has shifted to examination of professional pitchers after lar pitcher’s arm the most. “Why not use the information to either change arrangement, as Clinton has,” Felder told Reuters in a tele- another hike in elbow injuries with 35 Tommy John surgeries for major their motion or change their pitch selection?” he said. phone interview. “It’s not a marriage, it’s a political marriage, league players in 2012 and 30 last year. Medical information on minor Dr Johnny Arnouk, orthopedist in Sports Medicine at New York’s Mt so to speak. Sure, it happens a lot of times.” Turning 40 in July league pitchers has been collected this spring training including MRIs, Sinai Beth Israel hospital said some pitchers did not throw breaking and playing on surgically repaired hips, the bar is set relative- range of motion data, physical exams and playing history details, Marinak balls properly and pitch counts mattered. “The breaking ball is a skill ly low for the third baseman, who has hit 654 career home said. “The goal is to track these players over a five-year time horizon so we and you have to learn how to throw it properly,” Arnouk said. “With runs to stand fifth on the all-time list 108 behind Barry Bonds can watch them as they progress ... which players got hurt and which play- higher pitch counts comes fatigue, poor mechanics and injuries.” Dr and has three years left on his deal. Rodriguez, thanks to ers didn’t, and try to map that back to see whether there was something Mark G Grossman, chief of sports medicine at Winthrop University baseball’s guaranteed contracts, will get his money regard- predictive,” said Marinak. Hospital, said damage done at a young age was a fundamental prob- less and the Yankees hope they will get some useful on-field In the meantime, physical therapists try to protect pitchers, and lem and referenced Dr Frank Jobe, who performed the initial surgery contribution from him since no one would ever assume such researchers have found ways to measure stresses in hopes of warding off on Tommy John. “To quote Frank Jobe, who I trained under, ‘some of a costly contract in trade.