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Troy Tulowitzki Has Surgery Yesterday

Dirtbags make the best out of a bad break

By Bob Keisser
Staff writer

Troy Tulowitzki was understandably a bit nervous before undergoing surgery Thursday to repair a broken hamate bone in his left hand.

It's the hand that goes on the bottom of his bat, a bat that produced seven home runs, 44 RBI and a .317 average for the Dirtbags a year ago. It's the hand that goes into his glove, a glove that made him a defensive whiz last season, with just nine errors, for one of the top-fielding teams in the nation.

It's the hand that earned the Dirtbags a preseason national rank and Tulowitzki preseason All-American status, the hand the made him the sixth-ranked college junior by Baseball America and a likely first-round pick in June's amateur draft.

Minor surgery is what other people have, especially if you have a major league future. "I was a bit nervous," the shortstop said before surgery. "But I got on the Internet and did a little research, and I talked with Chuck (Sindlinger) a lot about what he went through last year.

Sindlinger, the Dirtbags' second-baseman, suffered the same kind of break to his hand last season. He missed 20 games, then went 5 for 9 in his first two games back. Tulowitzki's Net surfing also informed him that a trove of major league stars have suffered the same kind of injury and successfully resumed their careers.

Among them are Preston Wilson, Eric Hinske, Aaron Boone, Carlos Pena, Luis Matos, Kevin Millar, Erubiel Durazo and Jay Gibbons. "It's a lot more common that I thought," Tulowitzki said.

The Dirtbags (5-3), who host Cal (3-4) in a three-game series at Blair this weekend, will probably play the next six weeks without their starting shortstop. There is no such thing as a timely injury, but knowing their shortstop will likely be back for the beginning of Big West conference play is reassuring.

"The hand specialists say it's a pretty simple procedure, and the only thing he's going to have to deal with afterward is the pain," Dirtbags head coach Mike Weathers said. "Chuck came back from the injury very well."

Tulowitzki isn't sure how or when he suffered the injury. He had some soreness in his wrist and like a lot of athletes just played through it, and well. He was hitting .526 when he went down in the second game of the Saint Mary's series.

"I probably fractured it before then, by lifting weights or hitting," the shortstop said.

He will wear a short cast after surgery, one that goes up to the elbow but leaves the fingers free, and will start rehab in around three weeks.

Weathers said major league scouts naturally began buzzing around when they learned of the injury, but they told Weathers to tell his shortstop that it won't affect their opinions.

"We started the season early and a lot of scouts came out to that series at Arizona State," Weathers said. "He was so good that weekend, and they already know what he can do from last season and last summer (with the U.S. national team). It won't affect his draft status."

Evan Longoria has been playing shortstop since Tulowitzki went out and Danny Mocny moved from the outfield to third in place of Longoria. They'll probably get the most work at those positions until Tulowitzki comes back.

"You're never happy when a player goes down, but it's part of the game and you just deal with it," Weathers said. "Everyone gets beat up from time to time. The good thing is that the players have already responded well."

Comments:

Angels CF/1B Darin Erstad also had a similar operation in 2002.

# posted by  Rob : 5:46 PM

 

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