A-Rod’s Fragile Hip

Jan 11, 2013 by Mae Mordabito+

Raise your hand if you believe that A-Rod’s hip injury is completely unrelated to steroids or any other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).

What? No hands?

Come on. That’s what Dr. Bryan Kelly said, so it must be true, right?

Mr. Rodriguez admitted to previous use of PEDs in 2009 and he had hip surgery in 2009. Still, Dr. Kelly insists that the injuries are related to a condition known as Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI) that develops in childhood. If that were true, why hadn’t it been noticed during the many physicals to which A-Rod was subjected over the years? According to Dr. Kelly, it was a combination of that condition and overuse from ball playing that caused the injury.

Hm. Let’s set aside the steroid issue for a moment and think about the overuse claim. Yes, A-Rod plays baseball, giving his hip more use than the average 37-year-old man.  He has been playing ball for over 20 years. The body does wear out at some point, steroids or no steroids.  As they say, there is a time when every man has to accept that it’s time to stop playing the boys’ game.

But he has also been pretty active off the field, if you know what I mean. There have been the beautiful starlets that we have all heard about, but who who knows how many others he’s enjoyed over the past several year? Certainly enough to add some significant wear and tear on a fragile hip, don’t you think?

So, there’s a congenital condition, steroid use (at least in the past), 20 years of playing ball, and an unknown number of playmates – that’s a lot of strain on a hip, I suppose.

Dr. Kelly says that he should be fully recovered from the January 16th surgery and ready to play again by the All Star break, back up to this “previous level of performance.” What level of performance would that be? His poor 2012 playoff performance?  His second lowest RBI season and his 3rd lowest season for hits (both 2012)? Do we get to pick the year we want, because his performance level hasn’t been stellar for a few years? If do, I pick 2007.  Wait, that was a steroid year. Damn.

Maybe the doc was talking about his previous level of performance with the ladies. I have a feeling A-Rod would have asked about that.