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With Tommy John Surgery, Every Scar Tells a Story

They will be out there throughout the baseball playoffs, on the pitching mound each day, though they will not be easy to see. They range from seven to nine centimeters in length. Some are thick, others thin and faded. They tell the story of the modern pitcher.

About a quarter of active major league pitchers have had elbow surgery to repair a damaged ulnar collateral ligament. Some have had it multiple times. The operation, known as Tommy John surgery, after the first pitcher to undergo it, leaves players with a crescent-shaped scar inside the elbow.

The scar is the physical mark of both the epidemic and an individual player’s history.