maly, too: Too bad about Joe Hanrahan, the veteran major league relief pitcher who was born in Des Moines and competed at Norwalk High School. Hanrahan, who now pitches for the Boston Red Sox, will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon in his right arm and will be out six to nine months. ESPN.com reported all indications were that Hanrahan would have surgery instead of a lengthy and uncertain rehab after discussing matters with team doctors, but the need for a procedure became more obvious after he visited noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews on Friday. "Initially I thought there might be a decision to make [between rehab and surgery] but after talking to [Andrews] he took one look at my arm, touched it, said there really wasn't a decision," Hanrahan said Saturday morning. "The flexor pretty much tore off the bone. There wasn't really a decision, it was just a matter of what kind of surgery it was going to be. As for now it's just the flexor. When he gets in there and takes a look, could be worse, could be better. That's kind of where we're at now." Hanrahan said the surgery will be next week, in all likelihood. He is hopeful, if no further damage is discovered in the arm, that his rehabilitation would take closer to six months than nine, and he said he fully expects his career to rebound. "The way I look at it, surgery, the programs that they have now, surgery is kind of like putting a band-aid on something," he said. But it does not solve any immediate issues surrounding the Red Sox bullpen, which is onto its third closer after Hanrahan and Andrew Bailey (biceps) were sidelined. When asked about the state of the pen, manager John Farrell expressed confidence in those who remain, calling the corps "healthy" and "ready to go." Bailey will continue a throwing program Saturday with long toss. Farrell said he could be back on the mound throwing in simulated games by next week. As for the 31-year-old Hanrahan, he will finish his one and potentially only season with the Red Sox with an 0-1 record and a 9.82 ERA. He did have four saves but also blew two others and gave up four home runs in 7 1/3 innings. Hanrahan spent time on the disabled list earlier in the season with a hamstring strain and returned to the DL after exiting a loss to Minnesota on Monday with pain in the arm. He called the season "a wash," and with free agency looming could be finished as a player in Boston. But Hanrahan has not ruled out a return to Fenway. "Hopefully I'll get a chance here, maybe, and try to show the fans what kind of pitcher I really am," he said. The Red Sox traded for Hanrahan in December in a bid to bolster the back end of what was once a deep bullpen. He is due to make just a shade over $7 million this season. The timing of the injury is bad, what with the pending entry into the free agent pool. Farrell said that Hanrahan's physical well-being is paramount. "He's 31 years old and yes, free agency is pending, but you have to do what's right for the guy," Farrell said. "That's to make sure he gets all the information needed. You don't want a short-term solution or a quick fix. This is something that's got to be taken care of once and then he has a long and productive career following." Hanrahan has 100 career saves, 76 of which came in the last two years with Pittsburgh. Hanrahan said Saturday he had felt something in the area of the tendon before, so it was not something that occurred on one pitch.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Too bad about Joe Hanrahan, the veteran major league relief pitcher who was born in Des Moines and competed at Norwalk High School. Hanrahan, who now pitches for the Boston Red Sox, will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon in his right arm and will be out six to nine months. ESPN.com reported all indications were that Hanrahan would have surgery instead of a lengthy and uncertain rehab after discussing matters with team doctors, but the need for a procedure became more obvious after he visited noted orthopedist Dr. James Andrews on Friday. "Initially I thought there might be a decision to make [between rehab and surgery] but after talking to [Andrews] he took one look at my arm, touched it, said there really wasn't a decision," Hanrahan said Saturday morning. "The flexor pretty much tore off the bone. There wasn't really a decision, it was just a matter of what kind of surgery it was going to be. As for now it's just the flexor. When he gets in there and takes a look, could be worse, could be better. That's kind of where we're at now." Hanrahan said the surgery will be next week, in all likelihood. He is hopeful, if no further damage is discovered in the arm, that his rehabilitation would take closer to six months than nine, and he said he fully expects his career to rebound. "The way I look at it, surgery, the programs that they have now, surgery is kind of like putting a band-aid on something," he said. But it does not solve any immediate issues surrounding the Red Sox bullpen, which is onto its third closer after Hanrahan and Andrew Bailey (biceps) were sidelined. When asked about the state of the pen, manager John Farrell expressed confidence in those who remain, calling the corps "healthy" and "ready to go." Bailey will continue a throwing program Saturday with long toss. Farrell said he could be back on the mound throwing in simulated games by next week. As for the 31-year-old Hanrahan, he will finish his one and potentially only season with the Red Sox with an 0-1 record and a 9.82 ERA. He did have four saves but also blew two others and gave up four home runs in 7 1/3 innings. Hanrahan spent time on the disabled list earlier in the season with a hamstring strain and returned to the DL after exiting a loss to Minnesota on Monday with pain in the arm. He called the season "a wash," and with free agency looming could be finished as a player in Boston. But Hanrahan has not ruled out a return to Fenway. "Hopefully I'll get a chance here, maybe, and try to show the fans what kind of pitcher I really am," he said. The Red Sox traded for Hanrahan in December in a bid to bolster the back end of what was once a deep bullpen. He is due to make just a shade over $7 million this season. The timing of the injury is bad, what with the pending entry into the free agent pool. Farrell said that Hanrahan's physical well-being is paramount. "He's 31 years old and yes, free agency is pending, but you have to do what's right for the guy," Farrell said. "That's to make sure he gets all the information needed. You don't want a short-term solution or a quick fix. This is something that's got to be taken care of once and then he has a long and productive career following." Hanrahan has 100 career saves, 76 of which came in the last two years with Pittsburgh. Hanrahan said Saturday he had felt something in the area of the tendon before, so it was not something that occurred on one pitch.

Joel Hanrahan, courtesy of AP

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.