I pride myself on the concept of perspective in times of turmoil. Nothing is the worst thing that has ever happened until it actually is. And when it comes to sports, it’s never the worst. There’s always a tomorrow. This story is no different.

Last Saturday, the Nationals were en route to beating the 2-time reigning NL champion Phillies on a Saturday evening, when Stephen Strasburg threw a pitch, grimaced, and shook his arm. At that very moment, I turned to Amanda and said “Tommy John Surgery.” She assured me that I was overreacting. It was probably nothing. The Nationals would go on to blow out the Phillies 8-1. No one noticed.

A few days later, Rob Dibble, the Nationals’ television color commentator, went on his radio program and proclaimed:
I’m not a doctor, and I haven’t read the MRI yet, but I’m pretty sure he’s gonna come back fine. … You can’t constantly be complaining over every little thing. So for me, a little bit has to be put back on Strasburg here. Ok, you throw a pitch, it bothers your arm, and you immediately call out the manager and the trainer? Suck it up, kid. This is your profession. You chose to be a baseball player. You can’t have the cavalry come in and save your butt every time you feel a little stiff shoulder, sore elbow.

Dibble would continue in this vein, remarking about the fragility of the modern pitcher, much as pitchers from the 1980s do these days. He even went so far as to question his (Strasburg’s) loyalty to the team:
“I mean, excuse me. There’s guys I played with that had screws holding their elbows together. Chris Sabo played two weeks on a broken ankle. I put a steel plate in my wrist so I could be back in five weeks instead of three months. So, this is your choice. You can either suck it up and be a man at 22 making $2 million a year [with] a $15 million contract, or every time you get an ache and pain you can go out of the game and say I’m gonna let down the other 24 guys right here and possibly end up forfeiting the game.”

As much as I would like to break my PG-rated social media rules for Rob Dibble, I won’t. What I will say is that there is not an ounce of credibility in either of his statements you see above. Strasburg did not turn to the dugout and ask for assistance. What happened is that the prized possession in the city of Washington as far as sports is concerned, threw a pitch, grimaced in pain, and shook out his arm. I’ve watched a lot of baseball in my life. A lot. When pitchers do that, they’re hurt. Very hurt in fact. If a pitcher throws 90 pitches per start and has 30 starts in a season, he will throw 2700 pitches. If after any one of those 2700 pitches, he grimaces in pain and shakes his arm, that number always (not sometimes. ALWAYS) decreases drastically. Oftentimes, it just stops where it was. That, as it turns out, was the case for Strasburg.

What Rob Dibble said was a “little thing” was actually a very big thing. Friday, after a second MRI on his pitching arm, the Nationals announced that Stephen Strasburg has a major tear in his UCL joint and will require Tommy John Surgery. The typical recovery time for a Tommy John patient is 12-18 months, though lately it seems like pitchers are recovering at a faster rate than the 18 month period.

It is unlikely that this injury will put an end to Stephen Strasburg’s career. In recent days, I’ve heard lots of people say, “Oh, he’ll come back fine. Some pitchers come back even better.” i.e. This is no big thing. The problem is, of course, that this is a huge thing when it comes to baseball in Washington. I wrote about Strasburg’s debut back on June 8th before. It remains the greatest sporting event I have ever attended and is probably the greatest sports moment of my life. To this day, 2 1/2 months later, I feel like I was a part of something really special that Tuesday night. Strasburg’s injury is devastating to the Nationals. He was the main attraction in this 2010 season. Every game that Strasburg pitched here (save for his final start of the season at home, against the Diamondbacks, which I also saw in person) was a social event in a city that loves social events. Baseball is like that in Boston and Philadelphia, but it’s not like that here. There’s more going on here than just baseball. But on the days that he pitched, that wasn’t the case. And that was nice for a change.

Now, we’re left with not very much. Look, Ryan Zimmerman is one of the best third basemen in baseball. Jordan Zimmermann is a good young pitcher (also coming off of Tommy John surgery). Roger Bernadina has shown some signs that he could be an actual piece going forward. Ian Desmond has grown exponentially at the plate this season. There’s a few things to watch. But I get the feeling that I can just watch from home. With Strasburg, you had to be there. And this will affect the Nationals organization too. Believe it or not, it’s good to have people come into your baseball stadium to watch a game because then you get taken seriously. (Note to Tampa Bay Rays “fans.”) With empty blue seats around Nationals Park in the coming weeks and most of next season, the Nationals will have a hard time remaining relevant.

Help is on the way of course. The Nationals just had their second productive draft, signing nearly every player they selected in the first 25 rounds, including first overall pick Bryce Harper, second round pick Sammy Solis (of whom I expect very little, but hey), and third round Rick Hague (who is really hitting the ball down in Lo-A Hagerstown). And there’s some youth in the pipeline already (Derek Norris, Ross Detwiler, Chris Marrero) who are at or on their way to the big leagues. But no one, not even Harper, can fill the hole left vacant by Strasburg’s absence.

I remember walking away from Strasburg’s last start in AA thinking, “He’s going to need Tommy John Surgery at some point.” His delivery, the violent arm action, lent itself to a torn something. I just didn’t think that he’d need it so soon. And right when the Nationals and Washington needed him most.