January 23, 2012 Rounding Up the Usual Suspects: Herniated Disks
Everyone experiences back or neck pain at some point in their
lives, and baseball players are no different. We’ve seen Justin
Morneau, Chris Snyder, Tim Hudson, Jason Isringhausen, Peter
Moylan, and many others suffer disc injuries in the last few
years alone. We have over 120 cases of injured intervertebral
discs among major leaguers in our database, a number that’s sure
to grow as we add more historical cases and additional aches and
pains arise. As Corey tries to ignore his own sore back, let’s
take a look at intervertebral disc injuries. Roughly half an
inch thick, intervertebral discs are made up of three different
structures. The annulus fibrosis is the outer peripheral portion
of the disc and is composed of fibrocartilage along with type I
collagen, which is essential to the overall strength of the
disc. Tiny fibers in this layer attach to the bones and
cartilage end plates in order to keep them in place. The second
major component of the