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March 26, 2008

Team Health Reports

Kansas City Royals

by Will Carroll

The Facts
Head Trainer: Nick Swartz
Player Days Lost: 1,383
Total Dollars Lost: $16.64 million
Three-Year Rank: 27

This isn't easy. All 30 teams find themselves somewhere on this list not because they have some fundamental flaw, because they're good people or bad people, or because they work more or less hard than anyone else. Every athletic trainer at every level is properly certified or licensed, beyond the very few who are not, but were grandfathered in because they're so good that no one notices. Whether someone comes up with results is the simple result of facts. Someday, five or ten or fifty years from now, I imagine that people will find it quaint that we talked about injuries in the simple terms used here. Days and dollars will be nothing compared to the percentage-based, medically-informed view that will come down the pike. Someday soon, we'll know available/not available numbers, extend injury information to the minor leagues, and see injuries stop being talked about as "just part of the game."

Just as the Royals once won division crowns and a World Series not that long ago, things seemed to be better medically not so long ago. Losing Ewing Kauffman didn't change things; David Glass' ownership isn't to blame here. The facts are just the facts, and for the last three- or five-year period, the Royals have simply been bad in this area. Nick Swartz, the long-time trainer who replaced another long-time trainer, Mickey Cobb, has overseen this slide. It took a number small, perhaps unnoticed steps to help bring the franchise to its knees; it will take many similar small steps going the other direction to build it back up again.

Recognizing that health is something that seemingly any team can decide to make better by making a small organizational commitment and an only slightly larger budgetary commitment makes it even more frustrating that a mid-market team would be on the trailing edge. The facts show that the Royals, among many other problems, still have this one to deal with. "One of these days I'm going to lay this hammer down," Steve Earle sings. Today is not that day.

The Big Question

The bloggers over at Royals Review ask: "The Zack Greinke leave of absence in 2006 and subsequent return remains one of the more unique “injury” stories of the last decade. Are most teams prepared to help players with mental illness, or are some still flat-footed?"

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