Bobby Ojeda’s Left Arm

Bobby Ojeda has written an article that's been published on The New York Times. He talks about the pain he went through just to pitch and how he hid it from the coaching staff. It's a fantastic look at what I'm guessing a large number of pitchers go through in their lives. The pain for Ojeda began when he was 12 years old and it wasn't until he'd been in the big leagues for 7 or 8 years that he finally had a doctor look at his arm. His father was ahead of his time back then in that he didn't allow Ojeda to pitch more than once a week to protect his son's arm. Despite that, the pain was always prevalent.

Ojeda comforted his left arm with ice. Lots of ice. He slept with a long sleeve shirt on to keep his left arm from getting too cold. When that wouldn't work he turned to alcohol, pain meds and cortisone shots to help him pitch. Although it doesn't sound as if any of these became a problem for Ojeda, for some they could easily begin to define their life. Maybe it did so for Ojeda and he skipped over that part.