Update on Chris Carpenter

At the end of August, I wrote a post talking about thoracic outlet syndrome and the surgery Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter underwent to help with the syndrome.  They basically removed his first rib on his right side of the body and released some of the muscles in his neck to relieve the pressure on his brachial plexus (the group of nerves running from his neck to his arm).  Since there were only about 2-3 months left in the season, the plan was for Carpenter to start rehab and get ready to pitch again in 2013. 

Well, apparently Carpenter did not get the memo about this plan.  He was very aggressive with his rehab, and began throwing off a mound with about 4 weeks left in the regular season.  He was able to make 3 starts before the end of the regular season, and tonight will make his second start of the postseason.  All of this is very remarkable, for several reasons.  One, this is not a common procedure performed on baseball pitchers, so the actually recovery and rehabilitation time was a bit of an unknown.  However, for Carpenter to pitch less than 3 months after having a rib removed says a lot about him and the Cardinals medical staff.  Two, Carpenter is 37 years old, and he pitched over 270 innings last year.  We all know that the older we get, the longer it takes the body to heal.  Now everyone heals at different rates, but it is a big unknown after surgery.

If you follow the Cardinals, baseball, and/or Chris Carpenter, then you know he is one of the toughest players in baseball, and also has a remarkable postseason resume.  There aren't many players that would have been able to make this comeback.  Hopefully he can continue to pitch well for a few more starts and the Cardinals can win another World Series.