The Arm

Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports

De: Jeff Passan

Narrado por: Kevin Pierce

Yahoo’s lead baseball columnist offers an in-depth look at the most valuable commodity in sports—the pitching arm—and how its vulnerability to injury is hurting players and the game, from Little League to the majors.

Every year, Major League Baseball spends more than $1.5 billion on pitchers—five times more than the salary of every NFL quarterback combined. Pitchers are the game’s lifeblood. Their import is exceeded only by their fragility. One tiny band of tissue in the elbow, the ulnar collateral ligament, is snapping at unprecedented rates, leaving current big league players vulnerable and the coming generation of baseball-playing children dreading the three scariest words in the sport: Tommy John surgery.

Jeff Passan traveled the world for three years to explore in-depth the past, present, and future of the arm, and how its evolution left baseball struggling to wrangle its Tommy John surgery epidemic. He examined what compelled the Chicago Cubs to spend $155 million on one arm. He snagged a rare interview with Sandy Koufax, whose career was cut short by injury at thirty, and visited Japan to understand how another baseball-mad country treats its prized arms. And he followed two major league pitchers, Daniel Hudson and Todd Coffey, throughout their returns from Tommy John surgery. He exposes how the baseball establishment long ignored the rise in arm injuries and reveals how misplaced incentives across the sport stifle potential changes.

Injuries to the UCL start as early as Little League. Without a drastic cultural shift, baseball will continue to lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually to damaged pitchers, and another generation of children will suffer the same problems that vex current players. Informative and hard-hitting, The Arm is essential reading for everyone who loves the game, wants to keep their children healthy, or relishes a look into how a large, complex institution can fail so spectacularly.

Baseball's Version of, 'Born to Run'

Wow, what an eye opening book. It seems like we just keep fighting nature and evolution. Luckily we have intelligent and passionate researchers who actually ask the question, "Why" instead of being content with the status quo. As mentioned in the headline, Christopher McDougall's, 'Born to Run' and Passan's, 'The Arm' have much in common; albeit different parts of the body, writing style and thesis.

Where McDougall identifies a complex problem, provides historical background, collects empirical and anecdotal data, as well as provides logical solutions to counter the initial problem set, Passan captures the problem and anecdotal information, but doesn't really present a solution. Essentially he is just stating that there is a really big problem, and nobody really knows what the solution is and unfortunately, it seems, nobody really cares. He does identify the challenges with overcoming this, but one is left feeling empty with this complex problem. It seems that Major League Baseball is in its infancy in just acknowledging the problem, but for such a profit oriented organization to simply accept Tommy John surgery as the rule rather than the exception seems counter intuitive.

The narrator was great and I had no difficulty listening at 3x speed.

I did only give four stars for the story, but that is based on a comparison to, 'Born to Run'. Christopher McDougall is a better story teller and I personally found more value in 'Born to Run' than 'The Arm' as I have not been, nor will I ever be, a MLB pitcher. However, I run daily and therefore subject to those injuries and 'fixes'.

Best baseball book in years....

Must read for anyone with kids in baseball. Specialization and travel ball are ruining the sport.

Insider perspective at the world of baseball pitching

I really enjoyed Passan’s thorough perspective on how the pitching arm is the most important commodity in all of sports. The book looks at the crazy culture of youth sports and the detriment it causes for young athletes; the decision- making from GMs to invest millions on top arms; the world of sports science and how arms have been repaired; and the psychology of pitchers overcoming injuring. I really recommend this book for baseball fans that enjoy and insider perspective on the sport. This book is to pitcher’s arm as moneyball was to saber metrics

decision-making of GMs, the

Well Told Review About Baseball's Biggest Problem

Where does The Arm rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I haven't listened to many, maybe just 3 or 4, so this ranks at the top as the one I've enjoyed the most so far. Very entertaining and informative listen.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Arm?

The trials the two pitchers of rehabbing after having Tommy John Surgery. I was rooting for them the whole time.

Which character – as performed by Kevin Pierce – was your favorite?

Todd Coffey

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It gave me a new perspective on what pitchers go through when dealing with the Tommy John Injuries. It made me frustrated right along with them.

Any additional comments?

Includes a lot of historical perspective about baseball in general which I liked.

Good book. Very informative!

As the father of an inspiring pitcher, I found this book interesting and helpful. It was well researched and presented in an entertaining fashion. Good performance too. I have changed my son's pitching regimen based on knowledge I aquired from this book. Overall, it is a very well written book.