GREENWOOD VILLAGE — Nearly a year ago, Cody Wood found himself staring at Tommy John surgery. He had left his summer team during an out-of-state stretch, returned to Colorado and was informed that his right elbow was shot. He had an X-ray confirm it and accepted the news.
So what did the Cherry Creek senior-to-be do?
He went back to New Mexico to pitch one final game. Despite little or no feeling in several fingers, he threw a shutout for the Bruins’ summer team. He returned to Colorado to have a surgery that is ripping through baseball’s upper levels like a 95 mph fastball. (Rockies closer Adam Ottavino .)
“I was throwing not even close to my best, but I could still get outs,” Wood said.
He stunned his teammates as well as 70-year-old coach Marc Johnson. “Cody went in and wanted to pitch one last game. That’s unbelievable for a guy looking at Tommy John surgery. He’s a very competitive, hard-nosed, bulldog-type kid.”
More properly known as ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction, the surgical procedure is named for the former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher who was first to undergo the procedure, in 1974. It involves having the ligament in the elbow replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body, frequently from the forearm, hamstring or foot of the patient. It was perfected .
About 11 months after he took his turn in the rotation, Wood is pitching again. He’s limited to relief, as in 35 pitches per outing for the Bruins, the Class 5A Centennial League champions (17-2) who, like many other teams, await a break in the weather to start district rounds.
Wood said his first elbow injury was actually two summers ago, when he heard and felt a pop and had “the worst pain ever in the universe while pitching.”
After being told that he didn’t have a tear in his UCL, Wood spent a year resting and rehabbing. He even played wide receiver for the Bruins’ football team. And, as a junior starter with the baseball team, Wood was 5-1 in nine appearances.
“He was our stud a year ago,” Johnson said.
However, as Wood soon found out the hard way, “I threw a lot more than I should have. It just made it worse.”
He didn’t panic about a month later, when he heard the words “Tommy John surgery.” Actually, he said, he was relieved.
“I was saying, ‘Thank God, something that will make my arm feel better,’ ” he said. “It (stunk), because it meant I had to miss my senior year of football. But this is for the rest of my life. I’ll be stronger and have a better arm than ever.”
Wood has made seven appearances the spring, the first on March 23, and has three saves.
“I have to make sure my guys are ready,” he said. “This is my third year in the playoffs, and I won’t get to start or go deep into the games … so I have to make sure our first-year guys are ready to roll.”
Bruins pitcher/shortstop Blake Goldsberry, headed to Kansas, said initial news of Wood’s surgery “was pretty shocking, but he’s recovering pretty well. He’s probably one of our biggest leaders and is trying to get everyone working as hard as they can. He can help us. He just has that mind-set. He can’t lose.”
Wood, who will pitch at New Mexico, the only school he said didn’t back off when he had surgery, has reached 86 and 87 mph in recent outings. He said he’s coming back to full strength. And he learned a valuable lesson.
“People are throwing too much growing up,” he said. “They’re throwing 10 innings a weekend six years before they get to high school. They’re throwing year-round, and their arms will give out. Pitching is not a natural movement.”
