Spring is here, and it’s time to play ball! Baseball is a great sport that’s suitable for a wide range of ages. However, the nature of a sport that features a high-velocity ball can lead to injury, one of the most common being a tooth chipping. If your tooth chips during a baseball game, leave immediately and consult a dental professional, even if there is no pain or blood. Call your dentist and make an appointment as soon as possible, since timeliness plays a role in whether the dentist can save your tooth.

Baby or Adult Tooth?

It’s important to identify the chipped tooth. If a baby tooth is chipped, you probably don’t need to do anything, since the tooth will fall out on its own naturally. The chipped tooth may look funny, but poses no risk to dental health if it’s a baby tooth. The only exception is if there is an injury to the gums also, or the chipped tooth causes a sharp edge. Either scenario will be easy to see or detect. If the tooth is jagged, a dentist can remove the sharp edges and contour the tooth for safety and aesthetic appeal. Read the rest of this entry →

With Strasburg, Nationals may contend in 2012.

Nearly a year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Stephen Strasburg threw 31 pitches (25 strikes) and allowed 1 run on 3 hits in his first rehab outing for the Hagerstown Suns. He looked sharp and the Nationals are praising his recovery, but are also hurrying it along with the goal of having him back in the majors before the end of the season.

The Nationals have yet to make the playoffs in Washington, as the drought of 29 seasons go back to the 1981 NLCS as the Montreal Expos fell to the L.A Dodgers. Understandable, the Nationals want to build up and rise as a Major League Baseball team. But hurrying an injury like Tommy John on your future of the team, is not understandable.

At 55-59 and in an impossible NL East, the Nationals are back to their familiar state. Last place. Therefore, there should be no reason to get Strasburg back to Washington healthy and take the risk. It’s not the Nationals have any chance of making the postseason, I don’t think a team who’s 20 games behind the Phillies can win the division, but somehow, someway, the organization believes so.

Although I don’t agree with the rush, Strasburg does indeed to be back as soon as possible. I believe Washington can make the postseason with Strasburg in the rotation. Here’s why:

Only four games under .500, Washington has a fairly decent ball club. There has been plenty of bright spots for the Nationals, with slugger Michael Morse boasting a .327 average and 19 Home Runs with 67 RBI’s tearing  up pitching and becoming a go to guy for the capital’s team. Along with Morse, the Pitching Rotation has had it’s fair share of blemishes, but this year has been a little different. SP Jordan Zimmerman is a questionable 7-9, but a 3.12 ERA has shown that the lineup has not driven in runs for him. John Lannan has had an acceptable season, at 8-7 he has given Nationals fans a couple wins to cheer about. Read the rest of this entry →

Jason Grilli as he prepared to make the roster of the 2010 Indians

Over the past several months, one of my wildest baseball dreams has been realized. Not blessed with an overabundance of skill on the baseball field, it is beyond my greatest expectations that I’d ever have the chance to rub elbows with one of the chosen ones who has been dually blessed with extraordinary baseball skills.

As surreal as it seems to me, Cleveland Indians pitcher, Jason Grilli, and I became buddies last November through our work with the award winning children’s baseball book, A Glove of Their Own, and have become good friends over the six or so months that have passed.

Nearly every morning, the phone rings at my house in rural Massachusetts, and the name “Jason Grilli” pops up on the Call ID. I scratch my head in amazement that a “real live baseball player” would be calling ‘lil ol’ me, answer the call and hear the voice of a bonafide major league pitcher the other end of the line. Read the rest of this entry →