Chicago Cubs: Darvish is tougher than Yu think

Chicago Cubs: Money doesn’t change an athlete’s body

This is the reason we now have little league pitch counts, high school innings limits and a pitch counter in every on screen scorebox every time we watch a game on TV. We now take extra precautions to ensure the health of pitchers, whether they’re 12, 17 or 30.

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So, why then, when a pitcher signs a 100 million dollar guaranteed contract with our favorite team, are we so quick to throw that caution to the wind and label him as “soft,” “weak,” or other more derisive words meant to emasculate him?
Why don’t we believe him when he says he hurts?
The answer is simple – most fans haven’t had the kind of injuries these guys fight through on a daily basis.

We don’t believe professional athletes are truly hurt or the injury is serious unless something is broken or torn.  Ironically, in our daily lives, we grimace getting out of bed, grabbing Doritos from the pantry or getting off the toilet if we move the wrong way.

The other piece to this phenomenon is sometimes you are your best doctor.  You know what you’re feeling and how you’re supposed to feel.  You also know when something isn’t right, especially when you’ve been throwing a ball 95 MPH for more than a decade. An X-ray or MRI can’t always see everything, but you can certainly feel everything.