Big and Tall Aches and Pains

I keep waiting for White Sox slugger Jose Abreu to go on the Disabled List; the signs are all there.  Since just before the All-Star break, he’s taken to stepping out of the batter’s box and squatting, which is never a good sign.  Neither is the way he stretches his back while playing first base.  So, I wonder, does size count in baseball injuries?

Ever since Brian Downing popularized lifting weights some thirty years ago, the trend in baseball has gone in the direction of bigger, stronger players.  Mike Squires had a ten-year career as a part-time first baseman with the Sox from the mid-70s to the mid-80s.  Squires was 5’11” and 180 pounds.  In comparison the 255-pound Abreu stands at 6’3” while the increasingly injured Mark Teixeira is 6’3” and 215 pounds.  Somehow, 6’4”, 240-pound Jim Thome managed to play 22 seasons, though the last seven featured a very delicate back.  What’s my point?  Big guys swing hard, throw hard and get hurt often.  How do you say “oblique” and “Tommy John surgery”?

Frank Thomas will go into the Hall of Fame on Sunday.  The Big Hurt put up such incredible numbers in the first half of his career it didn’t matter that he started falling apart at age 33.  The same is true for Albert Pujols, except for the age.  Pujols seems to have started his decline at 31.

Now consider that Hank Aaron stood all of six feet; at 180 pounds, he had strength enough to hit 755 homeruns.  Pitching wise, I keep thinking of Tom “Flash” Gordon, a righty starter-reliever who managed a 21-year career in the majors.  (Gordon’s son Dee, an infielder with the Dodgers, stands two inches taller than his father.)  Two of the most impressive pitchers I’ve seen this year are starter Marcus Stroman of the Blue Jays and closer Greg Holland of the Royals.  Stroman is 5’9” and Holland 5’10”.  Maybe teams need to put away the tape measure.

Isn’t there a saying about good things in small packages?