OttoCat棒球新聞雜記

原文出自：The New York Times 中文翻譯：KeeperOf7Key 

Young Arms and Curveballs: A Scientific Twist
年輕的手臂與曲球：一場科學角力

By BILL PENNINGTON
Published: March 11, 2012

For decades, it has been an article of faith for parents of young pitchers: Do not let them throw curveballs. The reason was simple. Contorting elbows — all in the service of ever more competitive baseball at ever younger ages — puts more strain on the joint than arms can handle.

幾十年來，不讓小孩子投曲球一直是爸媽的信仰。原因很簡單，在競爭始終激烈的少年野球裡，控制手肘讓手臂關節承受過度的張力。

But as the research into the biomechanics of pitching has evolved, the debate has grown more robust, and more perplexing. A recent major study shows curveballs pose no greater risk than that of other pitches. And many studies lately have shown that the greatest threat to young arms is not throwing curves but making too many pitches of any kind.

但隨著投球力學研究的進展，爭議越來越強烈，也越來越使人困惑。最近研究指出投曲球並不會比投其他球種有更大的風險，而更多研究隨著發現年輕手臂最大的威脅並非是投曲球，而是過度的投球。

“Science is banging heads with intuition and gut instinct,” said Glenn Fleisig, the research director of the American Sports Medicine Institute, who has conducted studies on breaking balls and young arms since 1996. “For years, we told people that curveballs were bad. Then we set out to prove it. We did not prove curveballs are safe, but we could not prove they were dangerous.”

American Sports Medicin Institute的研究主任Glenn Fleisig從1996開始做了一系列年輕手臂與變化球的研究。他說；「科學衝擊了普遍的認知與直覺。一直以來我們告訴大家說投曲球不好，然後我們著手證明這件事。我們沒有證明丟曲球是安全的，但我們也沒有證明投曲球很危險。」

研究論文：A Biomechanical Comparison of Youth Baseball Pitches: Is the Curveball Potentially Harmful?

Like a pitcher and a catcher disagreeing on pitch selection, the opposing sides in the debate could not be more closely allied. Dr. James Andrews, the orthopedic surgeon to many athletes, is a founder of the American Sports Medicine Institute and has written with Fleisig some of the studies that have failed to prove that curveballs are hazardous to young arms. It has not stopped Andrews from challenging the results.

就如同投捕對球種意見不同一般，正反的說法都沒有個定論。幫許多運動員執刀的外科名醫James Andrews是American Sports Medicine Institute的創辦人，也和Fleisig共筆過一些研究，但都沒辦法證明曲球會對年輕手臂帶來傷害。但這些結論並沒有讓Andrews停止質疑這些研究成果。

研究論文：Risk of Serious Injury for Young Baseball Pitchers: A 10-Year Prospective Study

“What we found out in the lab is true,” Andrews said. “For pitchers with proper mechanics, the force of throwing a curveball is no greater than for a fastball. But that’s not what happens in reality on the baseball field. Many kids don’t have proper mechanics or enough neuromuscular control, or they are fatigued when throwing curveballs. Things break down.

Andrews說：「我們在實驗室的發現當然是真的。對那些以適當機制投球的投手們，投曲球承受的力量並沒有比投快速球來得大。但是在現實的球場裡並非如此。許多小孩並沒有適當的投球機制或是肌肉控制，或者是當他們在疲勞狀況下丟曲球的時候，就會出問題。」

“Those are the kids I’m seeing every day in my operating room.”

「而這些孩子每天都會出現在我的手術室裡。」

Little League Baseball imposed strict per-game pitch limits five years ago, but Andrews said he performed about seven times the number of arm operations on young pitchers that he did 15 years ago.

少棒聯盟五年前實施嚴格的逐場投球限制，但是Andrews說他幫年輕手臂開刀的數量跟15年前相比是七倍之多。

Last year, the findings of a study conducted on more than 1,300 pitchers from 8-year-olds to college students, were released by Little League Baseball, which had commissioned it with USA Baseball. Three University of North Carolina researchers surveyed the pitchers over five years, annually assessing multiple factors: number of innings pitched, kinds of pitches thrown, number of teams played for and any arm pain or injuries experienced. The answers were analyzed to judge which factors influenced injury risk. The test group included 410 Little League pitchers.

去年，少棒聯盟釋出一項與美國棒協共同委託，針對8歲到大學生總共1300名投手的研究成果。三名北卡羅萊納大學的學者在過去五年調查這些投手，並對多項因素做年度的評估：投球局數、球種、打過的球隊、手臂的疼痛或受傷。評估結果分析後被用以判斷哪項因素會影響受傷風險。試驗組包含了410名少棒聯盟的投手。

研究論文：Pitching Practices and Self-Reported Injuries Among Youth Baseball Pitchers: A Descriptive Study

“There was no association between throwing curveballs and injuries or even arm pain,” said Johna Mihalik, who wrote the study. “It was surprising in a sense because of the conventional thinking about curveballs, but we were well aware that the studies by Dr. Andrews and Glenn Fleisig had come to similar conclusions. That’s what fueled our study.”

主筆研究成果的Johna Mihalik說：「並沒有發現投曲球和手臂受傷或疼痛有任何關聯。這是讓人驚訝的結果因為傳統都認為曲球不好，但是我們發現名醫Andrews與Glenn Fleisig也有類似支持我們研究成果的結論。」

Stephen D. Keener, the president and chief executive of Little League International, said that deliberations among youth baseball leaders about banning, by rule, all breaking pitches had led to the commissioning of the study. When the findings did not link curveballs to injury, he said, Little League felt compelled to maintain the status quo.

國際少棒聯盟的主席兼執行長Stephen D. Keener說，少年野球的主導者對禁止所有變化球的規定非常慎重，所以才委託這次的研究。Keener說當結果並沒有將曲球與受傷聯結在一起的時候，少棒聯盟便覺得必須維持（可以丟變化球的）現狀。

“It doesn’t mean we’re advocating throwing breaking balls,” Keener said. “We don’t promote it. We just think it’s very difficult to regulate it out of the game, and there is no data to show that throwing breaking balls is at the root of arm injuries.”

Keener說：「這不代表我們鼓勵丟變化球。我們沒有提倡變化球。我們只是覺得很難完全將變化球排除在比賽之外，此外也沒有任何資料顯示變化球是手臂受傷的根源。」

Dr. Timothy Kremchek, an Ohio orthopedic surgeon who is the Cincinnati Reds’ physician and whose practice frequently treats youth pitchers, called Little League’s stance irresponsible.

俄亥俄的一位外科醫生，同時也是紅人隊的隊醫Timothy Kremcheck常常為年輕的投手開刀。他說少棒聯盟的態度根本是不負責任。

“They have an obligation to protect these 12-year-old kids and instead, they’re saying, ‘There’s no scientific evidence curveballs cause damage, so go ahead, kids, just keep throwing them,’ ” Kremchek said. “It makes me sick to my stomach to watch the Little League World Series and see 12-year-olds throwing curve after curve. Those of us who have to treat those kids a few years later, we’re pretty sure there is a cause and effect.”

「他們有義務要保護這些12歲的小朋友，但他們卻說沒有科學證據說曲球造成傷害阿，所以就讓他們投投久了他們就不會想投了嘛（誤）。」Kremcheck說：「當我看少棒聯盟的世界冠軍賽然後看著12歲的小朋友們狂投曲球，實在讓我很反胃。我們這些幾年後要治療這些小孩的人，非常確定是有因果關係的。」

Kremchek said he performed 150 elbow ligament reconstructions a year, a complex operation named after the former major league pitcher Tommy John, who had the surgery when it was developed in the 1970s.

Kremchek說他每年要做150個手肘韌帶重建術，也就是以大聯盟投手Tommy John命名，在70年代發展出來的手術。

“Seventy percent of those surgeries are pitchers who haven’t hit college yet,” Kremchek said. “I ask each one the same question: when did you start throwing curveballs? And they say: ‘I was 10. I was 11.’ Sometimes, it’s 9.”

「這些開刀的投手們有七成都還沒上大學呢。」Kremchek說：「我問他們每一個人同樣的問題：你啥時開始丟曲球的？他們說十歲啦、十一歲啦、有時候還有九歲的哩。」

Kremchek coaxed about eight Ohio youth leagues to prohibit breaking pitches. The umpire issues a warning the first time he suspects a pitcher has thrown a curveball, slider or other breaking pitch. A second offense means the player must stop pitching.

Kremchek說服大約八個俄亥俄的少棒聯盟禁止投變化球。裁判如果看到投手疑似投曲球或是其他變化球種會先警告。再被抓到就不能再投了。

“The mothers in those leagues are the biggest fans of those rules,” Kremchek said. “It’s not a hard call for the umpires. A 12-year-old trying to throw a breaking ball is pretty demonstrative as he does it. You can tell.”

「聯盟裡的老媽是最支持這些規則的。」Kremchek說：「這樣的判決對裁判來說並不難。當一個12歲的投手試著要丟變化球的時候是很明顯的，一看就知。」

But Keener said that rule, if enacted by Little League, would be hard to enforce across its more than 7,000 leagues.

但國際少棒主席Keener說這條規則如果立了，很難在超過7000個子聯盟裡一併執行。

“I applaud people for trying to do it,” Keener said. “But we often have volunteer umpires in a Little League trying to make balls-and-strikes calls and basepath calls, and it would be a very hard thing to ask them to also decide if a pitcher intentionally tried to throw a breaking pitch. What if that pitcher just has natural movement on his fastball?”

「我為那些試著推行的人大聲叫好。」Keener說：「但是我們的裁判都是志願者，試圖判決好壞球邊線球，很難再要求他們去判斷投手是不是故意丟變化球。如果那只是那個投手快速球的自然軌跡呢？」

One aspect of the curveball debate, and the studies it has spawned, that everyone agrees on is that throwing too many pitches of any type is the biggest danger.

在曲球的爭議中以及相關研究中有個觀點是大家都同意的：投太多球是最大的風險。

As surprised as Mihalik might have been about her study’s findings on curveballs, what alarmed her most was the number of pitches thrown.

雖然Mihalik可能對她的曲球研究結果感到驚訝，讓她最擔心的則是投球數。

“So many were playing for three teams at once,” she said. “And the data was extremely clear that overuse led to injury more than any other factor.”

「太多人一次就打三隊」她說：「而且資料明顯的指出過度使用導致受傷的程度遠遠超出其他因素。」

That, too, is consistent with the findings of more than 15 years of research at the American Sports Medicine Institute, and similar studies around the country.

這份結果也與15年前American Sports Medicine Institute所做的研究一致，而且類似的結論滿地都是。

“Maybe asking whether the curveball is safe is the wrong question,” Fleisig said. “Maybe the question should shift to this: Are you overdoing it? Because there is no question, scientifically or anecdotally, that too much throwing leads to injury, and often it’s serious injury.”

「也許『曲球安全嗎』是個錯誤的問題。」Fleisig說：「也許真的問題是『你是不是太操了』，畢竟不管是科學上或是殺豬公的看法，毫無疑問過度投球導致受傷。而且都是大傷。」

Little League instituted pitch limits based on research conducted by Andrews and Fleisig. This season, the limits are 85 pitches a day for 11- to 12-year-olds and 75 pitches for 9- to 10-year-olds. Rules also mandate days off between pitching appearances. Other recommendations by Andrews, who is on Little League’s board, and Fleisig, who acts as a Little League adviser, include a break of months from overhand throwing and competitive pitching, a 100-inning annual limit, avoiding radar guns and barring pitchers from playing catcher.

少棒聯盟基於Andrews與Fleisig的研究實施投球限制。在本季，12歲的每日投球限制是85顆、而9-10歲則是75顆。規則也要求上場的間隔。少棒聯盟委員會成員的Andrews與聯盟顧問的Fleisig還有其他的建議，包括高壓投球以及高強度投球後的月休、年度100局限制、不使用測速槍、以及禁止投手不投球時兼捕手。

In 2007, the first year of the Little League pitch restrictions, Tyler Richards and Kyle Cotcamp logged many innings as their Hamilton, Ohio, team reached the World Series. They also pitched for a travel team.

在2007，也就是少棒聯盟投球限制的第一年，Tyler Richards與Kyle Cotcamp隨著他們在俄亥俄Hamilton的隊伍打進世界冠軍賽，吃了一大堆局數。他們還幫一個巡迴隊投球。

Two years later, Richards had Tommy John surgery. Kremchek performed the operation, as he did for Cotcamp last year.

兩年後，Richards開了TJ。Kremchek當時幫他開刀，而去年Kremchek則是幫Cotcamp動刀。

“I just pitched way too much,” said Richards, now a high school junior who has resumed pitching.

「我就是投太多球了。」現在已經恢復投球，是個高中生的Richards說。

He added: “I should have just said no. I should have rested my arm.”

他進一步的說：「我應該拒絕並讓我的手臂休息的。」