A couple of years back, I wrote an article for Slate magazine in which I said that the labrum tear was the worst injury a pitcher could face. I never called it a “death sentence” (though I would have thought I had before re-reading it), and I wouldn’t have argued with that characterization. It’s probably my most-quoted work, and I’m still proud of it.
But it’s also obsolete. The article from May of 2004 discussed the situation as it existed then, not as it exists now. While a torn labrum isn’t good now, medical science has made huge leaps in fixing this issue. Again, it’s not good to have a torn or even a frayed labrum, but to use a 2004 article to explain it just doesn’t do the situation justice. Things have changed too significantly.
Which means that I should update the article, I know. I’m putting that on my off-season things-to-do list.
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