‘Tommy John’ Surgeries for Teen Pitchers

During the 2002 Little League World Series, millions watched on TV as two young pitchers each threw well over a hundred pitches during their semi-final games. That many pitches from a growing kid can mean serious shoulder and elbow injuries, leading to a spike in so-called “Tommy John” operations in teens and children. Ron Berler writes in his upcoming New York Times Magazine article that this trend has been ballooning steadily for the past decade. And it’s not always injured kids who are going under the knife.