Youd be hard pressed to find a man whos had a greater impact on baseball over the past 40 years. Fake Soccer Jerseys For Sale . Were not talking about Hank Aaron, or Bob Gibson or Roger Clemens, Cal Ripken Jr. or Barry Bonds. Were talking about Dr. Frank Jobe who passed away Thursday night at the age of 88. He is the surgeon who pioneered the ulnar collateral ligament transplant surgery that saved so many elbows and prolonged the careers of so many players, pitchers and position players alike. Dr. Jobe first performed his landmark surgery in 1974. He was actually in the stands watching at Dodger Stadium when Tommy John, for whom the operation will forever be known, blew out his elbow in a game against the Expos. John was out of action for 18 months after the surgery. But he not only returned, he flourished. Tommy John was named Comeback Player of the Year in 1976 and went on to win another 164 games with the Dodgers and Yankees before retiring at age 46. He finnished with 288 victories and a 3.34 ERA. He appeared in three All-Star Games after his surgery. He was never the best pitcher of his generation or anything close to that, but his career numbers and the fact he rebounded from this operation the way he did should in the Hall of Fame in my mind. Just how important has this operation been? Well before last season, 124 of the 360 pitchers on the opening day rosters had undergone at least one "Tommy John". Its not just the pitchers though, whove gone through this career-saving surgery. Carl Crawford, Rafael Furcal, ex-Jay Kelly Johnson and current Jays catching prospect A.J Jimenez have all undergone this elbow surgery. The first Blue Jays pitcher I could find who had the operation was David Wells back in 1985. But the list grows from there. Jimmy Key in 1988, former skipper John Farrell in 1991 while he was pitching for Cleveland and the list goes on. You have Billy Koch, A.J Burnett while he was with Florida, Jason Frasor who had it done twice, B.J. Ryan in 2007, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum, Josh Johnson while with Florida and Chris Carpenter with St. Louis in 2007. All owe their careers to Dr. Jobe and those surgeons who have followed his trailblazing path. The disturbing thing is the way elbow injuries have increased. There were 24 documented "Tommy John" surgeries in 2013, including those of Mets star pitching prospect Matt Harvey and Blue Jays journeyman pitcher Ramon Ortiz, who underwent the operation for a second time. But the worst year by far was 2012, when there were 46 "Tommy Johns" including four to Blue Jays Drew Hutchison, Kyle Drabek, his second, Luis Perez and the aforementioned A.J. Jimenez. There are two known pitchers who actually had three elbow ligament transplant surgeries. Jose Rijo who helped spark the Reds to victory in the 1990 World Series and Jason Isringhausen, who turned from a top starting prospect with the Mets to a standout reliever later in his career. Rijo is truly a remarkable story. After being named an All-Star with the Reds in 1995, he suffered a serious elbow injury and was out of the game for five full seasons. He finally battled back in 2001 as a reliever with Cincinnati. It was said after three "Tommy John" surgeries and two other arm operations, his elbow had almost no ligament left. But ironically, the arthritis in his elbow, the scar tissue and the fact he had built up the muscles in his forearm to such an extent, he was still able to throw against all odds. Rijo retired in 2002 but not before winning the final ball game ever played at old Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. One pitcher who doesnt need to worry about his ulnar collateral ligament is Blue Jays knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. Thats because he was born without one. Like Rijo, Dickey has defied the odds with many a doctor saying Dickey shouldnt be able to pitch without that ligament in his elbow. Yet two years ago, he won the Cy Young Award with the Mets and is still going strong with the Blue Jays at 39. At least 85 per cent of "Tommy John" patients make a complete recovery and in most cases, their elbows are stronger than ever. However, there are some who dont make it all the way back. Blue Jays closer B.J Ryan was never the same after his surgery in 2007 and was out of the game within a couple of years. But cases like that are the exception rather than the rule and the game would be a pale shadow of itself without the medical marvels of Dr. Frank Jobe. As a footnote, we should also mention Dr. Jobe pioneered a surgical technique on another Dodgers star, Orel Hershiser. It was a less invasive shoulder procedure that reduced the risk of collateral damage to the shoulder structure and sped up the recovery time. This and That Phillies infielder Freddy Galves will one day be the answer to a trivia question. On Thursday, he became the first player to hit a home run off the Yankees Japanese phenom Masahiro Tanaka. I try not to get too caught up in the struggles of pitchers in spring training since theyre often just working on command or one specific pitch but Ive got to admit on Wednesday, I was a little bit concerned when Brandon Morrow gave up five runs on six hits over three innings to the Pirates. Then I noticed on the same day, White Sox ace Chris Sale gave up six runs on six hits and a walk in just 2-2/3 innings against the Padres. Then, the Cubs Jeff Samardzija surrendered three runs on four hits in three innings in a 7-5 loss to Colorado. At that point, I realized its too early to be making hard judgements. Cheap Soccer Jerseys . McCutchen was cut before the series opener against Seattle on Monday night, when Lewis was set for his first start for Texas since July 18, 2012. Texas selected Lewis contract from Triple-A Round Rock. Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Authentic . The striker headed Spurs into a 35th-minute lead and tapped in their third in the 71st after Chico Flores own goal. Wilfried Bony hit the bar and had a good penalty appeal for a push by Tottenham captain Michael Dawson turned down in the first half, before getting Swanseas consolation late on. https://www.fakesoccerjerseys.com/ . Nine-year veteran Danny Granger did not make his debut with the Clippers because of a technicality on the teams active list, which is signed by coach Doc Rivers before every game and relayed to the officials. Grangers name was printed by hand by a member of the public relations staff under the heading: "Updated Roster Additions," but the number on the sheet was not circled along with the other active players by the required deadline of 6:30 p.OWINGS MILLS, Md. - The Ravens record-setting offence sputtered and stalled before halftime in December, scoring only two touchdowns in eight quarters.That wont do if Baltimore intends to make a deep post-season run.Its like a theme, wide receiver Torrey Smith said. We have to break it.Despite being outscored 41-20 in the first half, the Ravens won three of their final four games to squeeze into the playoffs. Baltimores offence produced only seven first-quarter points during that span, a performance hardly befitting the highest-scoring team in franchise history.Its something we need to address and fix and make sure it doesnt happen, quarterback Joe Flacco said. But I think the biggest thing is just to go out there and be aggressive and do the things that we do well and make the plays when theyre presented to us.Of Baltimores 30 first-half possessions in December, 14 ended with punts and four with turnovers. There was also a missed field goal, and once the Ravens turned the ball over on downs.The last thing the Ravens need is another early lockdown by their offence Saturday night during their wild-card game at Pittsburgh.You dont want to put yourself in a hole. You have to play better, receiver Steve Smith said. But at the same time, its the playoffs. Anything happens, and everything happens. We just have to play ball, and we have to play better, and we have to make more plays than them. And hopefully, at the end of the game, we have more on the scoreboard than they do.Overall, its been a great year for Baltimores offence under first-year co-ordinator Gary Kubiak. The Ravens scored 409 points, ranking eighth in the NFL with a 25.6 averrage, and yielded only 19 sacks compared with 48 last year. Cyber Monday Soccer Jerseys. Flacco set career marks in yards passing (3,986) and touchdown passes (27). He produced comeback wins over Cleveland, Jacksonville and Miami in December but clearly would prefer not to work from behind against the Steelers.The biggest thing is just moving the ball and not giving them a lot of third-down chances to really get up and get going early on in the game, Flacco said. Weve probably hurt ourselves more so than anything with false starts and little things like that. And when you do that —especially on the road — you give their crowd a good chance to get into it and really get fired up. A three-and-out definitely energizes them, and usually it carries over to the next series. He speaks from experience. On Dec. 21 in Houston, the Ravens went three-and-out on four of their first five series, fell behind 16-0 at halftime and couldnt climb out of the hole.The biggest thing we have to do is move the ball early and get into the flow of the game, Flacco said.The Ravens were limited to only three points over the first three quarters against Cleveland last Sunday before pulling out a win with 17 points over the final 15 minutes. Sure, they might be able to do the same thing against the Steelers, but counting on that is dangerous.Slow starts, third downs, touchdowns in the red zone — especially when you play Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh — those are things you really need to do well, coach John Harbaugh said. We need to do better at those things if we expect to come out of there with a victory.___Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL ' ' '