By Thomas Keppeler, Shoulder1 Staff
Mitch Melusky, who Detroit Tigers managers hoped would anchor the team's hitting efforts, would anchor the team's hitting efforts, will miss the entire baseball season while he recovers from surgery to repair a loose shoulder.
Melusky, a recent trade from the Houston Astros, began complaining about his shoulder last month. He underwent surgery for the troubled right shoulder in May of 1999, according to the Associated Press.
Rookie Brandon Inge will fill in for Melusky, who batted .300 last season. Inge has no major league experience and hit just .221 last season for a minor-league team in Toledo, Ohio.
The shoulder is held together by two bands of tough tissue: the capsule, a thick set of ligaments, and the rotator cuff, a group of four muscles and their respective tendons that moves the upper arm bone. Looseness of the shoulder occurs when either—or, as is most often the case, both—of these groups are loosened. Excessive throwing motions, genetic laxity (double-jointedness), or injury to either the capsule or ligaments can lead to a loose shoulder. Loose shoulders are more prone to subluxation, dislocation, stiffness and pain.
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