Furcal to undergo surgery, miss rest of season

[Jim F.]

Furcal to undergo surgery, miss rest of season

July 9, 2001


ATLANTA (AP) -- Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal, the NL rookie of the year in 2000, will miss the rest of the season after dislocating his left shoulder in a game against Boston on Friday night.

Furcal will have surgery on Tuesday and need about six months to recover. The Braves expect him to be ready for spring training next season.

An MRI on the shoulder Monday in Birmingham, Ala., by Dr. James Andrews indicated the original diagnosis by Braves team doctor Joe Chandler was accurate.

``He had a complete dislocation of the shoulder,'' Chandler said after Atlanta beat the Red Sox 6-5 in 10 innings.

Chandler scheduled the MRI to check the amount of damage to the surrounding ligaments and cartilage.

Furcal was injured in the ninth inning when he led off with a walk in a 3-all game. He stole second, but slid awkwardly and remained on the dirt after the play in obvious pain.

``When I went past the base, I tried to hold on,'' Furcal said. ``I slid a little late and covered the whole base.''

It wasn't the first time Furcal injured the shoulder.

He hurt it during the winter during a Dominican League game diving headfirst on the bases and didn't play for six weeks. He lifted weights to restore strength to the shoulder and came to spring training healthy.

But he injured it again earlier in the season and sat out a week. At that time, Braves doctors decided surgery would be needed at the end of the season.

Furcal, who won't turn 21 until Aug. 24, was batting .275 this season with four homers, 30 RBIs and was among the league's stolen base leaders with 22.

Furcal hit .295 with 40 steals for the Braves last season to earn NL rookie honors. He led NL rookies in runs (87), walks (73), steals and on-base percentage (.394).

To replace Furcal, the Braves recalled infielder Jesse Garcia from Triple-A Richmond on Saturday.

Garcia hit .263 with one homer, 17 RBIs and 13 stolen bases at Richmond, but is expected to back up Mark DeRosa as the starting shortstop. DeRosa is hitting .420 (21-for-50) with six RBIs.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news/ap/...es-furcal.html

-jim

[YanksRockMan]

Terrible loss for the Braves.

[okieyankee]

Not a Braves fan (unless they play the Mutts or RSox) but this is a huge development for them. He is a great talent and has a super future ahead of him. Best of luck to him in his rehabilitation.

[satchel]

This injury happened at Fenway park and I was watching it on TV in a bar literally right around the corner. It was quite nasty. He overslid into second base, and grabbed on the bag to keep from coming off the base and getting tagged - but he was hanging on so tight that his momentum just ripped his arm out of the socket. It was awful.

He's a great young player and it's really going to hurt the Braves to lose him for the season - their offense was struggling already.

[silverdsl]

How sad for Furcal. While the injury was slightly different, it really shows how remarkable it was for David Cone to have come back and pitched after dislocating his shoulder last season.

-Deborah

[Alex]

But this is a complete dislocation with collateral damage to the shoulder. I wonder if his cannon of an arm will be the same again. Too bad for the Braves.

[Bernie51]

*Sigh* I hope the injury isn't so bad as to where he will start having throwing problems.

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by Alex
But this is a complete dislocation with collateral damage to the shoulder. I wonder if his cannon of an arm will be the same again. Too bad for the Braves.

Alex, I wondered the same thing. But after reading the press release on the Braves site, I was relieved to see that it was his LEFT Shoulder, and not his right shoulder.

This does suck though . All of my favorite players always get hurt.

My top 3:
1) Furcal- Out for the rest of this year.
2) Ordonez- Broke his arm last May and missed the rest of 2000.
3) Beltre- Apendix taken out, then infected, and missed the beginning of this season.

I am really sad Furcal is out . It's too bad so many people slide head first nowadays. It seems like everyone always gets hurt that way .

Just as already mentioned on this thread, I wish him the best of luck with his rehabilitation, and I can't wait for spring training next year.



SVT