Most Common Injuries for Baseball Players

By Christy Flom on May 13, 2015

Playing sports is always a risk. Whether there is contact or not, injuries always seem to be occurring. From jamming a finger to breaking bones, the range of injuries from petty to gruesome can be seen in all sports.

Since different sports utilize different body parts, certain injuries can appear more in some sports than others. Notorious contact sports like football and soccer — you know, the sports where collisions are more likely to happen than touchdowns or goals — are seemingly always reporting injured players.

However, other sports, too, have a wide range of injuries. For example, in hockey there are many facial injuries with the infamous stereotype of hockey players not having all of their front teeth. In golf, there are many back injuries and sometimes knee injuries. And in baseball, there are mostly upper body injuries.

Because baseball players predominately use their arms more than any other body part, the most common injuries in this sport surround these muscles.

One area of frequent injury is the shoulder. Many baseball players strain or tear their rotator cuff while playing baseball. This is most common in pitchers who wear down their shoulder muscles on a daily basis. When a rotator cuff is torn any throwing movement can be extremely painful.

Image by Peter Miller (image via flickr.com)

According to the website effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov, the rotator cuff is “a group of four muscles on your shoulder blade with tendons that attach to the ‘ball’ of your humerus.” The rotator cuff is what allows you to lift and rotate your arms. Also according to the site, the rotator cuff can be fixed by physical therapy to strengthen the muscles and tendons or else by surgery that stitches the tear back together.

Besides the shoulder, numerous other injuries occur in the arms of baseball players. Elbow and wrist fractures and breaks are also common.

Similar to tearing a rotator cuff in one’s shoulder, elbow injuries are also probable in baseball. A similar injury is tennis elbow. While this injury did get its obvious name from tennis players having the injury, the repetitive throwing motion day after day using one arm in baseball causes this injury to be seen a lot in baseball, too.

According to webmd.com, tennis elbow is the swelling of the tendons that causes pain. To treat this injury, icing the tendons and taking anti-inflammatory medicines like aspirin will help allow the tendons to heal.

Moving even further down the arm, wrist injuries are plentiful in baseball for a multitude of reasons. These injuries are less common in pitchers and more common in batters sliding into bases. A hard or unexpected slide can cause a player to improperly land on their wrist causing the bone to fracture from the force of impact.

Other scenarios in which a broken or fractured wrist can occur are when players get hit with a pitch or dive for a catch in the outfield. Getting hit by a pitch is never enjoyable but usually the result is only a bad bruise depending on the body part hit.

In the outfield, the top plays of the week are always the insane catches that players make. Whether it is diving and colliding with another player to get an out or jumping against the outer walls to prevent a home run, outfielders can make some insane catches. These catches can sometimes come with a price. A fractured wrist can happen from something as simple as banging your wrist against the metal railing lining the stands or from landing directly on the wrist after diving for a ball.

Wrist injuries are easily treated through splints or casts as long as they are identified before the bones begin to heal in the wrong position. Once the wrist is healed, players can still wear wrist guards or splints while playing until the wrist is fully strengthened.

Moving away from injuries in the arms of baseball players, leg injuries are also common. Knee injuries are probably the most prevalent in baseball. From the twist of the knees while swinging a bat to sliding and rolling into bases, knee injuries can happen all over the diamond.

Image by Eli Christman (Image via flickr.com)

ACL and MCL tears are the most well known injuries to the knees. When batters go through the swinging motion it is important that they rotate through their hips and knees. Just as golfers are taught to pivot their foot as they swing, batters do a similar motion. When this motion is done incorrectly is when tears can result.

Knee injuries have a long period of recovery so taking preventive measures is really important here. ACL training to strengthen these ligaments can drastically decrease chances of a knee injury.

It is also important that baseball players know how to correctly slide into bases. Slamming your body to the ground will most likely result in an injury so using proper technique and having smart coaches will help decrease all injuries related to sliding.

Overall, baseball may not be a contact sport but there are still a ton of injuries that can easily occur. Some can be prevented through strength training and proper coaching but others are just an unfortunate part of playing the game.

The most important thing is to make sure to receive the proper treatment as soon as possible to prevent future injuries.

Injuries are a part of playing sports and athletes are willing to accrue broken bones for the thrill of the games, which speaks volumes about the dedication of athletes that we idolize every day. To read more articles about baseball and how to properly hit a baseball, click here.

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