Matusz will fly to Philadelphia to get wart removed
After Brian Matusz threw two scoreless innings today in the Orioles' 2-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins, manager Buck Showalter announced that the pitcher will fly to Philadelphia and likely have a wart removed from the middle finger of his throwing hand.
If all goes well, Matusz will return to Florida tomorrow night and likely miss only one start.
"There is probably a real technical term for it, but the layman’s term is wart," Showalter said. "We talked about it some last year, I believe. It’s kind of on the outside of the [middle] finger. The only time it comes into play is on a breaking ball when it comes off of that. I think the plans are -- they could change -- for him to take it off tomorrow with some kind of laser procedure where it’s not that long. He could maybe miss a start. We’ll know a lot more after he gets back from there. We don’t want this thing to be something that really shows its head up in the middle of the season and now he misses more than one start, or even a start in the season. It won’t be anything that he couldn’t come back from."
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Comments
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Posted by: bryanintowson | March 3, 2011 4:21 PM
He has to go all the way to Philly to get a wart removed?! They can't do that in Florida?!
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Jeff Z's reply: I've answered that one in a couple of other posts.
Posted by: Tom C | March 3, 2011 4:35 PM
Jeff -- Please help me with this if you can. You write that Brian's flying all the way to Philadelphia to have a wart removed?!
I just used an online distance calculator that puts 1552 miles (about half the distance across the US for those keeping score) between Sarasota and Philly as the length of his trip to...ah-hem...have a wart removed.
But there are dermatologists in Florida...in Sarasota, for that matter...who can remove warts. This may be surgery, but it's definitely not brain surgery.
So what gives with seemingly pointless mileage being logged for a relatively simple procedure? Any light you can possibly shed on what's behind this curious decision would be greatly appreciated.
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Jeff Z's reply: Oriole team doctors and athletic trainers don't speak or comment to reporters so I'm not sure I have all the answers. But apparently, this is a special laser procedure that he's going to get that isn't necessarily available everywhere. Also, my understanding is that the O's team dermatologist is based in Philly. If that is the case, I don't blame them.
Posted by: Ken Francis | March 3, 2011 5:39 PM
This report begs a couple of questions:
1) If they knew about it last year, why the hell didn't they take care of it in the offseason? And
2) What? There aren't any doctors in Florida that can remove a freakin' wart?
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Jeff Z's reply: It wasn't bothering him last year, and Matusz claims to have just started noticing it in the last couple of months. As for the locale of the surgery, the sense I get is it's a special laser procedure that's not available elsewhere and one of the Orioles team doctors apparently is based in Philly and they obviously want him doing the procedure.
Posted by: cliffdweller | March 3, 2011 5:44 PM
Eeeww! Hope it doesn't kill his breaking ball
Posted by: Jumanji | March 3, 2011 6:23 PM
Why take him to Philly?
Why not take it him to Lourdes and dip the finger in the famed "Holy Water". That would fix him right up!
Posted by: Wart.. What Wart? | March 3, 2011 7:07 PM
He should soak it in cider
Posted by: Chris in sd | March 4, 2011 11:14 AM