5 of the Top Reasons There Are So Many Baseball Arm Injuries

Baseball arm injuries are grabbing headlines everywhere.

2024 marks the 50th anniversary of Tommy John Surgery. And to "celebrate," the arm-injury epidemic has really kicked into gear.

Pitchers are hitting the Injured List like crazy - just ask Yankees fans about Gerrit Cole and Jonathan Loáisiga.

Why the increase in injuries?

The Players Association wants to believe it's due to the pitch clock.

HINT - it's not.

Every kid who has ever pitched has wanted to do two things - throw hard, and throw a curveball.

We went over some of the issues with throwing a curveball too soon a few days ago.

The emphasis on velocity is equally troubling. College coaches can deny this all they want, but if you're not in the 90 mile per hour range as a high school junior, odds are you aren't getting too many (any?) high-level Division 1 looks.

Here are 5 of the top reasons for the rash of arm injuries we are seeing.

Too many pitchers are throwing WAY too hard, WAY too soon, at WAY too young an age.

This past winter, I ran two pitching programs. One was for elementary school players, and the other was for middle-school age players in a club organization.

In both cases, there were players who came in firing the ball from Day One.

One fourth-grader, who threw very hard for his age, threw one ball that hit the backboard in the gym we were using.

He didn't seem to get the message when I told him, "It's great that you can throw hard, but you have no idea where the ball is going when it leaves your hand."

And this is happening at every level of baseball, from eight -year-olds all the way up to Major League Baseball.

Look at the number of relief pitchers who come in throwing 98-100 miles an hour, knowing that they're only going to face three batters. Of course, they're going to try to max out.

Major League starting pitchers? When the expectation is that you only need to give five innings per start before the next flame thrower comes out of the bullpen, of course they're more likely to offer maximum velocity more often.

When Jacob deGrom was still with the Mets in 2022 and came back from one of his stints on the Injured List, two of the first three pitches he threw were at 100 miles per hour.

So it probably shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone when, roughly a year later, deGrom underwent the second Tommy John surgery of his career.

Here is former MLB pitcher Al Leiter talking about deGrom's mechanics back in 2022.

Do an online search and you can come up with middle school velocity programs.

And there was one pitching "guru" whose entire online presence was based around getting pitchers to throw 90 miles per hour.

Excuse me?

How about we get the arm conditioned and get young pitchers to understand that what they're doing - throwing a baseball overhand - is not a natural movement for an arm. Underhand is far more in tune with how our arms work. Your arm needs to be conditioned and trained to throw hard.

Disclaimer - it wouldn't surprise me that some of those middle school programs are actually just cleaning up a kid's mechanics which can easily result in an increase in velocity.  But selling it as a velo program might be a bit misleading.

Don't want to take my word for it?

Dr. James Andrews is one of the leading authorities on Tommy John surgery and arm injuries in pitchers.

Baseball has become a year-round sport with kids playing on multiple teams. It's not unusual to see 9, 10, and 11-year olds pitching their rec team and a travel team in the same week.

Give it a rest.  It's okay to not be playing every day of the week.  And if you are playing on multiple teams it is crucial that you (or your parents, depending on your age) monitor your pitch count.

It's not enough to expect that your rec coach, your travel coach, and your middle school coach are all on the same page.

This may seem like a contradiction to what's above, but it's not.

I have had the opportunity to work with former MLB pitching coach extraordinaire Leo Mazzone on a number of occasions and one of the things Leo constantly would stress is that pitchers need to throw more, but with less exertion.

As the pitching coach for an Atlanta Braves team that won 14 National League Eastern Division titles in a row, it wasn't unusual for guys like Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine throwing pretty much every day.

Some days might be just playing catch, followed by a day of long toss, then a bull pen day, then another day of long toss. The point was that Leo's pitchers were conditioning their arms and not throwing max effort every time they picked up a ball.

Go to any youth baseball game and you're likely to see players going out to the field and start throwing as soon as they arrive.

Without a proper warmup, this is an absolute recipe for disaster.

My mantra - warm up to throw, don't throw to warm up.

What that means is some jogging to get loose, some form running, and some dynamic stretching designed to get the muscles warmed up.

Static stretching will indeed stretch a muscle, but it does absolutely nothing to warm it up.

Actually, this is a little misleading. I wrote something about this a few days ago - the curve ball gets a bad rap.

The fact is that any pitch thrown improperly - not just curveballs - can potentially hurt a young arm. And often, when a young pitcher first tries to throw a curve, he's doing it improperly.

What you want to do is make sure that a player can throw his fastball for a strike before he even thinks about throwing any kind of breaking ball.

This past winter in the middle school program I mentioned above, at the start of the third session (out of eight), one of the pitchers aske me if he could start to work his curve into the routine.

Mind you, were we still doing flat ground work and not be on a mound for another two weeks, but he was still very inconsistent when it came to throwing strikes in the work so far.

No one - absolutely NO ONE - cares how hard you throw ball four.

I will repeat that a little louder for the people in the back of the room - NO ONE CARES HOW HARD YOU THROW BALL FOUR.

Take a baseball break.

I mentioned about that for some young players, baseball has become a year-round sport.

Give it - your throwing arm and your body - a rest.

It's okay to play another sport in the fall and winter. You're working on using your muscles in a different way.

It's equally okay to NOT pick up a baseball for six to eight weeks in the winter. If you play fall baseball and your season ends at the end of October, take November (and maybe even December) off.

You will have plenty of time in January and February to get ready for high school, and younger players can use March as well.

MORE EPISODES OF WDHA'S TWO-MINUTE DRILL WITH JIM MONAGHAN AND CHRIS SWENDEMAN

Sports Anthems: It's amazing how they can move thousands and thousands of people all at once. Without a doubt, at least some of these songs on this list will be played at some point during MLB's Opening Day.

Most sporting events without music nowadays just fall flat. An appropriate soundtrack is practically essential. Now, different sporting events often have different vibes. This can vary by the sport itself, the level of said sport or the region in which the sport is being played.

With this in mind, this list was crafted to have some surprises, yet also be overall universal. It's trying to walk a very particular line of mass appeal and unexpectedness. Truth be told, this list of the best sports anthems walks that line rather brilliantly.

This author has been to her share of sporting events over the years. Regardless of the sport, there are just certain songs that are ubiquitous at sporting events. Whether it's high school, minor leagues or the pros, these 25 songs deliver on at least one over more of these levels:

-Does the song help hype up a crowd?
-Does the song add a new, appropriate level of emotion to a sporting event?
-Does the song have a unique tie to a team/athlete, but can also transcend it?
-Does it have a universally recognizable hook?
-Has it been used in a sports movie, thus, increasing its reach to the general public?

Look, this list is far from scientific, but it sure is a lot of fun, which is the whole point of any list like this. Frankly, it was a lot of fun to put together. It's even more fun to revisit when major sports events appear on the calendar, from Opening Day to the Super Bowl and everywhere in between.

From rock to hip hop to EDM to pop, here are the 25 best sports anthems, ranked.

Here’s the beginning of a theme that’s going to run through this entire list. A great sports anthem needs a killer hook that’s going to pump up the crowd. Whether you’re a Kesha fan or not, the thumping chorus of “Blow” never fails to get people going regardless of how much you might want to deny it.

“And every time I step up in the building, everybody hands go up/And they stay there.”

People love a victory song, and they also love to do synchronized movements together with hordes of other fans. This is why DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win” is so perfect. Sure, he’s a selfish, greedy lover, but the dude knows how to put out bangers.

Naughty By Nature’s “Hip Hop Hooray” was seemingly tailor-made for sports arenas. A simple chorus will do that, not to mention everyone rocking and swaying during the chorus in the music video. It’s been an arena classic since it first dropped in 1992. Plus, it’s funny seeing people trying to rap along with Treach and Vin Rock on the verses.

Synth riffs rule! If you say they don’t, it must be exhausting kidding yourself so much. “The Final Countdown” has been a sports anthem for decades, especially in the United States. However, the Swedish band wasn’t really aware of it until the 2000s.

Europe singer and “The Final Countdown” songwriter Joey Tempest said in a 2005 interview, “I did an interview about a year ago with a newspaper from America and they talked about how much it's been used in sports in America… which I didn't know so much about. Apparently, it has been used a lot, and it was nice to hear.”

Some acts are here for a fun time, not a long time. While Tag Team was a one-hit wonder with “Whoomp (There It Is),” that hit has massive staying power thanks to its use in a number of movies – from D2: The Mighty Ducks to Elf – and countless time outs at sports events. Can you dig it? We can dig it!

Just going to say what we’re all thinking: Randy Rhoads’ classic guitar riff is so powerful and transcendent it could get a funeral hyped up. (Someone try it and report back!) Facetiousness aside, “Crazy Train” has been whipping sports fans into a frenzy for decades. There’s truly no stopping this locomotive beast any time soon.

The only thing that’s going to outlive Keith Richards is the way people pop as soon as they hear the iconic opening riff to “Start Me Up.” It’s a jolt and the perfect song to play if an arena crowd has lost a bit of energy when their team is trailing. Seriously, the next time you're at a sporting event and the crowd is a bit "meh," it's only a matter of time before you hear that opening riff.

“Enter Sandman” is one of a few tunes on this list that’s both a universal anthem and also uniquely associated with a specific team or athlete. In this case, it’s hard not to imagine legendary closer Mariano Rivera jogging from the bullpen to the mound when hearing “Enter Sandman.”

Fun fact: The unanimously-elected Baseball Hall of Famer doesn’t actually like Metallica. He told MLB Network in January 2019, “With all due respect to the guys, I’ve never been to one [of their concerts]. As a Christian, with all due respect to Metallica, I don’t listen to that kind of music.”

“Hey! Ho! Let’s go!”

It doesn’t take a genius to realize why this Ramones classic is an outstanding sports anthem. Sure, Tommy and Dee Dee Ramone probably didn’t have sports fans in mind when they wrote the song, but it’s another example of songs taking on different meanings after they’re released.

Young man, are you listening to me? People love simple dances. If you can do the dance after a couple (or a lot) of overpriced beers, that’s even better. Try and deny it all you want, but “Y.M.C.A.” will live forever and will get people moving whether you’re at a sporting event, a wedding, a bar/bat mitzvah or whatever you feel.

It took a bit, but techno has finally made its way into this list. You may not recognize the artist or title of this song, but if you’ve attended a sporting event in the past two decades, you most definitely have heard “Kernkraft 400.” Jump to the 1:55 mark in the video below, and you’ll likely say out loud, “Oh! This song!”

When Steve Perry, Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon wrote “Don’t Stop Believin’,” they probably had no idea how big of an impact the song would make in the sports world. Perry likely didn’t think it would become a rallying song for the 2005 Chicago White Sox and would lead to him being invited to watch the team win the World Series, let alone get to party with them in the locker room and attend the championship parade. The track is also important to Perry’s hometown team, the San Francisco Giants, who play “Don’t Stop Believin’” during the 8th inning of every home game.

Lastly, Detroit Red Wings fans have screamed “born and raised in south Detroit” at home games for years when the song plays at the end of a winning home game. Sure, there is no “South Detroit,” and geographically speaking, south of Detroit is Windsor, Ontario, Canada, but it’s all in good fun.

“If you had one shot, or one opportunity/To seize everything you ever wanted/One moment/Would you capture it or just let it slip?”

It’s the kind of tension any athlete or sports fan has felt in a pivotal moment in an important game/match/bout/etc. Some songs just have the ability to connect with the masses on a magical level. “Lose Yourself” is one of those songs. It’s timeless and also mind-blowing to realize it came out in 2002.

You’re about to enter a trance, and by “trance,” we mean the EDM subgenre where “Sandstorm” still reigns as one of its most popular hits. The Darude track is closely tied to Gamecocks football at the University of South Carolina. (ESPN.com has a fantastic deep dive about the song’s history with the school’s football program.) Even outside the SEC, “Sandstorm” is still a go-to song to fire up fans the world over.

Some Boston Red Sox fans love “Sweet Caroline”; others would seemingly rather drink their own urine than hear the song in the middle of the 8th inning at Fenway, according to a 2017 Boston.com feature. Regardless, the song has wormed its way into the realm of sports, likely due to its fun sing-along chorus and the “ba ba baaa” of it all. Depending on how much you’ve had to drink, it could be really fun or really awful for nearby sober people. Either way, it’s here to stay.

Steam is one of many one-hit wonders in music history, but they certainly made that hit count with 1969’s “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.” The track topped the Billboard 100 and is the universal theme song to sing when your team knocks an opposing team out of the playoffs. It can also emotionally wreck you if you happen to be revisiting the 2000 Disney film Remember the Titans.

Without Queen, we may not have Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” Sylvester Stallone originally wanted to use “Another One Bites the Dust” as the theme to Rocky III, but Queen turned Sly down.

In a piece for The Tennessean, Survivor keyboardist Jim Peterik said Stallone then reached out to him to see if he could write a song for the latest Rocky movie after hearing the Survivor song “Poor Man’s Son.” Peterik and guitarist Frankie Sullivan were then allowed to see a rough cut of the film, and the rest is history. So, thanks to Queen, who we’ll see a bit later in the list. 

Fact: ‘90s dance music just hit differently. 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready For This” is a prime example of this. The song’s hook is insanely catchy and so energetic it could revive a corpse. It’s not surprising it’s been a sports arena mainstay for decades.

Naturally, some may hear the track and can only think of two words: “Spirit Fingers.” In response, we say this song’s the poo, so take a big whiff.

From Angus Young’s opening riff to the repetitive group vocal of “ah-ah ah ah ah-ah ah ah,” AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” has been riling up crowds and teams since the band released the track in 1990.

When hearing the song today, it’s hard not to think about a very hungover West Canaan High School football team getting rocked on the field in 1999’s Varsity Blues. It’s also hard not to think about the “Thunderstruck” drinking game.

“Sweet Caroline” is to the Boston Red Sox as “Sirius” is to the Chicago Bulls. The Alan Parsons Project instrumental has been used by many other teams since and in a variety of ways, but it’ll forever be tied to the Bulls. Its original version clocks in at under two minutes, but what a powerful, inspiring and sweeping two minutes it is. 

“Woo-hoo!” That’s it. What other explanation for “Song 2” do you need, really? The descriptions of some of these songs really don't have to be complicated, much like this Blur megahit.

As we stated at the beginning of this list, hooks were going to be important, and there are monster hooks in “Jump Around.” It’s pretty clear why this hip-hop tune is here. (It came to get down, obviously.) Thanks to the likely drunk University of Wisconsin-Madison students in sections O & P at Camp Randall Stadium, the rowdiness of “Jump Around” will live forever.

“You know where you are?/You’re in the jungle, baby/You’re gonna die!”

It may have been released in 1987, but “Welcome to the Jungle” still sounds as fresh as ever. Its sentiment in relation to sports will endure forever. The fire, the hunger, the rage. “Welcome to the Jungle” has all of that and then some.

The global impact “Seven Nation Army” has had on sports is almost too grand to express. That song’s minimalist riff has woven its way into so many sports leagues from the UEFA Champions League to the NFL to MLB to even the WWE at WrestleMania 38.

In a 2014 appearance on Conan, Jack White said of the sports popularity of “Seven Nation Army,” “People come up to me all the time, and they think it makes me mad for some reason. As a songwriter, that’s the greatest thing that could ever happen. It becomes folk music, because the people take it over. I don’t know of many songs where they’re not chanting words; they’re chanting a melody.”

Plenty of people may argue about the order of this list, but it’s going to be pretty hard to argue against #1. And yes, they may be separate tracks, but “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” truly belong as one cohesive opus.

We’ve all done the *stomp, stomp, clap* too many times to count, both in and out of sports arenas. If you’ve been lucky enough to see your favorite team clinch a championship, you’ve likely sung “We Are the Champions,” and there was no other glory quite like it. That euphoria is part of the draw to any sport. Fortunately, there’s one hell of a soundtrack for it.