The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Vikings doctor puts Donaldson on fast track
A sports medicine specialist for the Vikings helped Donaldson recover from what was a significant injury. Donaldson has played in eight games with the Indians and is hitting .217 with them.
Larry Fitzgerald, now in his 15th season as a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, will deserve a big “thank you” from the Indians if they go on to win the World Series and Josh Donaldson plays a key role in ending the 70-year drought for the Tribe.
Donaldson was not progressing well from the calf injury that sidelined him in late May when he was with the Toronto Blue Jays. Then, in mid-August, about two weeks before the Indians acquired Donaldson from the Blue Jays on Aug. 31, Fitzgerald hooked him up with the doctor who put the slugging third baseman on the fast track to recovery.
“I started getting some information from a good friend of mine, Larry Fitzgerald, who got me in contact a soft tissue guy, Dr. Josh Sandell,” Donaldson said before hitting a home run of Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale on Sept. 21. “He really took me along on that next step to where I could get on the field and start moving without pain.
“Initially when I went on the DL, I thought it would be minor. I ended up having a significant injury to my calf while I was doing a rehab assignment in Florida. Two days after I saw (Dr. Sandell), it was the first time I was able to start running. I ran my longest distance while accelerating without any pain.”
The bio on Dr. Sandell on Orthology.com says he is a sports medicine specialist for the Minnesota Vikings and that he has more than 500 professional athletes from the NFL, CFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, MMA, and PGA as patients.
“Dr. Sandell is pretty innovative in that he’s starting to use stroke therapy, what they would use for stroke victims, in order to help guys gain back muscular function and nervous system function throughout the process,” Donaldson said. “As athletes we compensate often, especially when you’re hurting, which can lead to some other issues. He was able to re-hardwire my nervous system while using this therapy to where I could start moving and running more freely and naturally.”
The home run to the left field bleachers in the bottom of the fourth inning was the big blow of the Sept. 21 game for Donaldson, but an infield single to the third base side of second was perhaps more significant.
Red Sox second baseman Brandon Phillips raced to his right, scooped up the ball and fired to first. Donaldson raced down the first base line and beat the throw by an eyelash – a sign his calf is back 100 percent.
Donaldson has played in eight games with the Indians. He is hitting .217 with them with five hits in 23 at-bats. He has two home runs and two RBI.
• I just finished for the second time “You Can’t Go Home Again” by Thomas Wolfe. It is not a sports book, although the theme applies perfectly to the disappointment of Browns fans that hoped the expansion team born in 1999 would be a reincarnation of the Otto Graham, Jim Brown or Bernie Kosar years.
One short passage in “You Can’t Go Home Again” deals with a character in the book daydreaming about baseball in the 1930s, before there was Dollar Dog Night, TShirt tosses, before ESPN, night baseball, mascots running around in fuzzy pastel sweat costumes and when major pro sports were not played west of St. Louis.
“C. Green thinks of the baseball games, the rawhide arm of Lefty Grove, the resilient crack of ashwood on the horsehide ball,” the book reads, “the waiting pockets of the well-oiled mitts, the warm smell of the bleachers, the shouted gibes of shirtsleeved men, the sprawl and monotone of inning after inning.” And it continues: “(Baseball’s a dull game, really; that’s the reason that it is so good. We do not love the game so much as we love the sprawl and drowse and shirt-sleeved apathy of it.)”
Current baseball commissioner Robert Manfred should read it. Baseball isn’t governed by a clock, and that’s what makes it special.
Paying dividends
John Dorsey was hired as general manager of the Browns on Dec. 7 last year and quickly identified the secondary as the worst unit on defense. Just as he wiped out all three quarterbacks on offense, he dumped three starting defensive backs.
Dorsey traded quarterback DeShone Kizer to Green Bay for starting free safety Damarious Randall, signed starting right cornerback Terrance Mitchell in free agency and drafted starting left cornerback Denzel Ward.
The Browns, last in the NFL with 13 takeaways last season, lead the league with 11 after three games. Ward has two interceptions and one fumble recovery, Mitchell has a fumble recovery, two forced fumbles and an interception and Randall has one fumble recovery and one interception.
“They have seven of the 11 takeaways,” Coach Hue Jackson said Sept. 21 on a conference call. “They’re able to cover teams’ really good wide receivers and then we also have a chance to get the ball away from them. They’ve made a huge, huge impact on our defense. We just need them to keep doing it week in and week out.”
Linebacker Joe Schobert, in his third year with the Browns, has two fumble recoveries and an interception.
• Protection on Browns’ special teams, on the other hand, has been awful. The Steelers blocked a field goal try by Zane Gonzalez late in overtime in the opener when they overpowered interior lineman Joel Bitonio. The Jets blocked a punt by Britton Colquitt when they beat rookie running back Nick Chubb around the corner rushing from Colquitt’s right.
Jackson wants things to change quickly.
“I’m very concerned,” Jackson said. “It’s something that we sat down and had a good conversation about. My disappointment is that it’s happening with sometimes young players and sometimes veteran player. We have to shore it up. We can’t have it become the Achilles heel.
“We know that teams are going to scratch where it itches. Right now, that’s one of the areas that’s itching, and we have to fix it. We have to put a Band-Aid on it as fast as we can.”
We’ll never know whether the blocked field goal led to Gonzalez missing four kicks in New Orleans, but the Browns are already on their second kicker (Greg Joseph) after cutting Gonzalez on Sept. 17. Joseph made two field goals and a PAT in the 2117 victory over the Jets on Sept. 20.
“He made plays,” Jackson said. “The ball went through the uprights. I tell him, ‘That’s what you’re here for. As long as it goes through the uprights, you can stay. If it doesn’t, you might have to go.’ That’s just how it works.”
I didn’t know that
... until I read my Snapple bottle cap.
Borborygmus is the noise your stomach makes when you’re hungry . ... Calvin Coolidge walked his pet raccoon, Rebecca, around the White House on a leash . ... It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open . ... The emergency phoned number in Europe is 112 . ... The common garden worm has five pairs of hearts . ... The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is the shortest war on record. It was over in 38 minutes.