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The ulnar collateral ligament, or UCL, is a triangular set of bundles in the human elbow that looks like three crisscrossing strips of bacon—a marvel of physiology that functions as the crucial hinge between the humerus, in the upper arm, and the ulna, in the forearm. But as Jeff Passan memorably describes it in his 2016 book, The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, the UCL is also “a finicky little bastard, ill-equipped to stand up long-term to the single fastest movement the body can generate: the throwing motion.” A pitcher’s arm whips through the air “30 times faster than an eyeblink,” he writes, and all of that power and torque gathers in the elbow, leaving the UCL “screaming for mercy.”
Sandy Koufax, the great pitcher for the Dodgers, famously quit baseball at a time when he seemed to be at the peak of career (1966). He said:
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I've got a lot of years to live after baseball and I would like to live them with the complete use of my body. I don't regret one minute of the last twelve years, but I think I would regret one year that was too many.
Smart man.