Shoulder surgery for Hall

Early deadlines.

Sometimes they are necessary in the newspaper business. They can be caused by a variety of reasons, such as weather, holidays, the number of inserts going into your newspaper.

Early deadlines can be a sportswriter's best friend, meaning you're not writing on deadline if you're covering an event that runs late. Often, however, early deadlines make for twice as much work. One example is Saturday night when the O-R had an early deadline. I had to write an early story to fill space in case the Wild Things-Schaumburg Boomers played out for three hours or longer. It turned out that the game lasted only 2:28, so a running game story appeared in the O-R's Sunday edition and this early story about pitcher Justin Hall opting for season-ending shoulder surgery never appeared in the print edition.

Here's the story:

By Chris Dugan
Sports editor
dugan@observer-reporter.com

To pitch, or not to pitch?

That was nagging question Justin Hall finally had to answer.

Justin Hall

A right-handed starting pitcher in his third year with the Wild Things, Hall has been sidelined since the end of May because of a small tear in the labrum of his throwing shoulder.

Hall was trying to avoid surgery to repair the tear, instead opting to rehab the injury. Recently, he threw a couple of impressive bullpen sessions and Washington manager Bart Zeller said he had wanted to activate Hall from the disabled list and get him a start before the all-star break.

So when it came time to make a decision, the crisp velocity on Hall’s fastball told him to pitch again.

The lingering discomfort in the shoulder, however, told him to call it a season.

Hall decided to go for season-ending surgery, though he’s convinced it won’t be a career-ending procedure.

“I told myself that it’s time to put on my big-boy pants and make the decision to get the surgery,” Hall said Friday. “I don’t want to try to deal with the pain and have it the rest of my life.”

A 25-year-old native of Virginia, Hall was off to his best start with the Wild Things, going 2-0 with a 0.53 ERA in two May outings. He opened the season with a five-hit shutout at Rockford and followed it with eight innings of one-run ball against Southern Illinois May 26. That was Hall’s final game of the season. He experienced discomfort in the shoulder while long-tossing prior to a game at Joliet.

“It just felt tight,” Hall said. “I probably overexerted while long-tossing. I was throwing the ball farther than I have. It’s disappointing because of how well the season started. It was a very good start. I’m probably at the best point of my career from a mental standpoint, from learning so much about how to pitch and prepare myself.”

After an MRI revealed the small tear in the front of the shoulder, Hall tried some rehabilitation therapy before starting a throwing program. He recently had a setback after throwing a bullpen session in Florence.

“Everything was good. I threw five innings, about 75 pitches. I lost a bit of my control in the fourth or fifth inning, but the soreness after that was normal,” Hall explained. “It went away quickly, but I still had irritation. I knew that I was still not right.

“I can throw. I still have velocity. I was throwing 87 to 90 (mph), and that was in the bullpen without the adrenaline rush your get while pitching in a game.”

Hall will have the surgery in Pittsburgh. The same surgeon who performed a similar procedure – though on the back of the shoulder -- on former Wild Things pitcher Justin Edwards will operate on Hall. The rehabilitation is expected to take eight months and Hall could be back in time for spring training next year.

Hall has been a workhorse for the Wild Things since being signed in the spring of 2011, after he spent one season in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. He holds several Wild Things pitching records, including most complete games in a career (9), innings pitched in a season (145 1/3 in 2011) and strikeouts in a game (14 at Windy City on the final day of the 2011 season, a game in which he pitched 11 innings).

He has an 18-14 record with Washington.

The Wild Things placed Hall on the retired list, though Zeller said that was more a paper move that allows the team to retain Hall’s rights than one that signifies the end of career.

“We want to keep him and he wants to stay with the Wild Things,” Zeller said. “The only ways to do that were to suspend him or retire him, and putting him on a suspended list just looks bad.

“I think he made the right decision with the surgery. There’s a tear there and it’s not going to repair itself.”