Well, baseball’s opening day was Sunday.
But I didn’t need to tell you that if you live in Kansas City.
After 2014’s baseball season, Kansas City Royals fans have been counting down the days until the start of the season this year. There’s a new excitement for baseball in the Kansas City area, and kids are gearing up for another summer full of games and tournaments.
This excitement for the sport is good news for the Royals and for Kansas City baseball fans across the state.
Now, you might not think of baseball as a dangerous sport. It’s not as rough as football where players run into one another at full speed or as dangerous as boxing where the goal is to punch someone in the face enough times to knock them out.
Compared to these two sports, baseball seems about as dangerous as collecting bottle caps.
But as a Kansas City chiropractor, we’ve seen that as youth baseball players have become more competitive, they’ve begun to cut corners to get ahead.
The result? Baseball injuries in kids. And it’s becoming quite an epidemic.
Kansas City Baseball Injuries
In recent years, kids have been encouraged to chose one sport to pursue, as opposed to the multi-sport training programs of the previous generation.
So called “serious” baseball players are now playing the same sport year-round instead of playing another sport in the ‘off season,’ but this doesn’t give your body a chance to rest between seasons.
Studies show that this year-round approach to sports has been the biggest contributor to baseball injuries. Kids as young as 13 or 14 are developing injuries we had only seen in adults in the past.
Many of the Kansas City baseball injuries that major league baseball pitchers face today began when they were young.
Warning Signs of Kansas City’s Most Common Baseball Injuries
1. Pain or a Feeling of “Looseness” on the Inside of the Elbow
UCL Injuries
One of the most common baseball injuries is damage to the UCL. 25% of all major league pitchers have had surgery to repair their ulnar collateral ligament (UCL.) Your UCL connects the bone of the upper arm (humerus) to one in the forearm (ulna).
UCL injuries are caused by repetitive stress. Pitching requires throwing motions that repeatably twist and bend the elbow. This puts extreme stress on your ligament, and over time, this tendon begins to tear. As the body heals these tears, it lengthens the tendon to the point where it can’t hold the bones tightly enough to throw a ball.
Common symptoms: If you experience pain on the inside of the elbow, a looseness in your elbow or an irritated funny bone, it’s best to have it examined by a doctor.
2. Pain in the Shoulder or an Inability to Rotate the Shoulder Properly
Rotator Cuff Tears
The rotator cuff is the set of four muscles that allow the shoulder to rotate. The muscles in the rotator cuff are held together by tendons that connect the bones.
Repetitive stress on these tendons (like when you repeatably throw baseballs at speeds faster than you can go on any US highway) causes them to become extremely irritated and to eventually tear.
Rotator cuff tears are one of the most common baseball injuries. They can be diagnosed after an exam and MRI.
Common symptoms: Pain and swelling in the front of the shoulder and side of the arm, pain or a clicking sound when you raise your arm, or pain when you reach behind your back.
3. Pain in the Bony Knob on the Outside of Your Elbow
Tennis Elbow
What? You thought only tennis players got tennis elbow? Not so.
The knob on the outside of your elbow is where injured tendons connect to the bone.
If you have tennis elbow, you may feel pain radiating from your elbow along the outside of your arm, when you lift something, make a fist to grip an object, open a door or shake hands and especially if you raise your hand.
Tennis elbow can happen to anyone who swings their arm a lot, especially the throwing motion required in baseball.
To diagnose tennis elbow one of our Kansas City chiropractors will do a thorough exam. He’ll have you flex your arm, elbow and wrist to see where you feel the pain the most. He may also X-ray the joint.
4. Pain in the Knee
Knee Injuries
Baseball injuries to the knee usually happen to baseball runners. When you repeatably twist the knee joint (like when you stop and go while rounding the bases), you can rip your meniscus (the cartilage in the knee). Ouch.
Extreme pain in the knee could also mean injuries to the ligaments that hold the upper part of the leg to the lower leg.
After a thorough exam, your chiropractor may order an MRI or X-ray the knee to diagnose the problem.
5. Headaches or Neck Pain
Head Injuries
When baseball players bump into one another, runners run over catchers or when outfielders collide, the head and neck can sustain a serious injury. Baseball injuries to the head and neck happen in almost every game.
If you experience nausea, dizziness, or headaches, you should be examined for a possible head or neck injury.
Our chiropractors specialize in treating head injuries from sports such as neck pain and whiplash.
Kansas City Treatment for Baseball Injuries
Open 7 Days a Week, we treat more baseball injuries than any other Kansas City chiropractor. We treat many patients on Saturday afternoon after their games, and then follow up with them throughout the week to ensure they heal as quickly as possible.
We specialize in treating sports injures of all types including soccer, volleyball, football and even dance. Athletes from all over Kansas City come to our clinic to perform at their peak and to help them recover from injuries.
Find Out More:
Here’s How Chiropractic Can Instantly Help You Become a Better Athlete
Can Running Actually Help My Back Pain?
How to Prevent the Most Common Soccer Injuries