Chiropractic Care in Major League Baseball
SPORTS CHIROPRACTIC
Rick Bishop
Alan Palmer
Professional baseball organizations have come a long way in providing chiropractic to their players. Chiropractic care has been a vital component for helping many of Major League Baseball’s biggest stars stay on the field and avoid injuries, as well as enhance their performance throughout the long, tedious MLB season. Currently, 28 MLB teams utilize chiropractic services at home during the season, as well as during spring training. Not only do the large majority of Major League teams recognize chiropractic, but many teams in Minor League Baseball do as well.
It is important to appreciate our past and to know where we’ve come from before we can look to the future and have a clear vision of where we want to go. When you look at chiropractic as a whole and where we are as a profession today, none of it would have been possible had it not been for the great sacrifices that a few made many years ago. The same is evident within sports chiropractic, and in particular, the Professional Baseball Chiropractic Society.
In 2008, the Professional Baseball Chiropractic Society came to fruition and the first annual PBCS Directory was created. The directory, with the assistance of each head athletic trainer in MLB, consisted of chiropractors from all but three MLB teams. After the 2008 season, the PBCS became inactive until it was given life again in 2012 when a Pittsburgh-area chiropractor, Dr. Rick Bishop, along with an Arizona Diamondbacks chiropractor, Dr. Alan Palmer, were appointed to head the PBCS and get it up and running. With minimal financial support, a PBCS Directory was once again published midway through the 2012 season and distributed to each MLB head athletic trainer to assist the training staff of teams that may need chiropractic services while on the road.
Long before the PBCS existed, Dr. Palmer and a long-time head athletic trainer for the San Francisco Giants, Mark Letendre, had a vision of integrating chiropractic into professional sports, especially within Major League Baseball. Dr. Palmer has been the team chiropractor for the Arizona Diamondbacks since their inaugural season in 1998, and for many years prior, he had adjusted the San Francisco Giants during their spring
* ^In 2008, the Professional Baseball Chiropractic Society came to fruition and the first annual PBCS Directory was created.
training in Scottsdale, Arizona. This relationship led to the founding of the Chiropractic Association for the Care of Elite and Professional Athlete (CEPA), and ultimately to Dr. Palmer’s association with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Letendre and Dr. Palmer co-founded CEPA in 1995 to integrate chiropractic into professional sports and build a network of practitioners. In 1998, Dr. Palmer sent the Arizona team information about CEPA and used Letendre as a reference. He soon found himself adjusting the Diamondbacks.
“CEPA started out as a certification program,” said Dr. Palmer. “Mark wanted us to educate the doctors about certain standards and protocols, and how to prevent chiropractors from stepping on toes, and how to build relationships with athletes and trainers and the team’s medical staff.” The “continuity of care” concern figured large in the birth of CEPA. Some chiropractors’ inconsistencies in care and communication when interacting with the team sports medicine specialists left many head trainers wary of allowing chiropractors entry into players’ health care. CEPA was born out of these frustrations.
Fast forward again to 2012 when the first PBCS meeting was held in Las Vegas during the annual ProSport Chiropractic Conference at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Conference Center.
In attendance were PBCS Director, Dr. Rick Bishop, PBCS Assistant Director, Dr. Alan Palmer (Arizona Diamondbacks), Dr. Patrick Hammond (Kansas City Royals), Dr. Brian Prieto (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), Dr. Doug Roche (San Diego Padres), Dr. Mickey Cohen (Miami Marlins), Dr. Eric Blum (Los Angeles Dodgers), and former Chicago Cubs chiropractor, Dr. Alden Clendenin. A PBCS Board of Representatives was created during this initial meeting, and it consisted of one chiropractor from each division in Major League Baseball. The main objective of the board was to help facilitate communication between the training/medical staffs as well as other team chiropractors within each division in MLB.
As the PBCS began to grow, a greater awareness and interest of the PBCS also began to develop within chiropractic. By 2014, the idea of an annual PBCS seminar or workshop where the MLB team chiropractors meet was being envisioned. During the Professional Football Chiropractic Society’s annual conference in Indianapolis in February 2014, Dr. Bishop was introduced to Adam Brown, who was the director of sports development at the Laser Spine Institute (LSI) in Tampa, Florida. This meeting eventually led to an official partnership between the PBCS and LSI. As a result, LSI hosted the first annual PBCS Workshop at their headquarters in Tampa in March 2015. Many of the MLB team chiropractors attended as well as a few from Minor League Baseball (MiLB). This seminar was an overwhelming success and a far cry from when the first organized meeting took place only a few years earlier in Las Vegas with only eight attendees. It even included a surprise visit from former MLB manager, Joe Torre, who was on hand to support Dr. Ralph Filson as the first recipient of the PBCS Lifetime Achievement Award. Torre even took some time to address those in attendance about how beneficial chiropractic was not only to him, but also to the players on the teams he managed.
In 2015, the PBCS expanded to include chiropractors who provide chiropractic care to teams in Minor League Baseball. The PBCS Minor League coordinator, Dr. Sonny Haight, has collaborated with Richard Stark, the Cincinnati Reds Minor League medical coordinator in this process. “Currently, over thirty Minor League affiliates have a chiropractor who works with their team and this number is climbing,” said Dr. Bishop, PBCS director. “We have a great vision for the incorporation of
chiropractic care within every team in professional baseball.” During the process of confirming which MiLB teams ai e using chiropractic, the PBCS has been able work with athletic trainers of teams who previously did not have a chiropractor working alongside them. As a result, they have been successful in placing chiropractors with these teams and assisting the training staffs in this capacity.
In January 2016, the second annual PBCS Workshop was held at Salt River Fields, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ and the Colorado Rockies’ spring training facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. In fact, the Rockies hosted the workshop in their 110-seat capacity theater. This was a major milestone, not only for the PBCS, but also for the chiropractic profession. The inclusion of chiropractic within the multidiscipline sports medicine model was unheard of in professional baseball years ago, and now a MLB team was playing host to a chiropractic educational seminal'. This most recent seminal' included an even greater representation of team chiropractors from within both MLB and MiLB. In fact the New York Yankees will be co-hosting the PBCS Annual Workshop in January 2017 along with LSI.
The acceptance of chiropractic in baseball has come a very long way in just a few short years. By taking an evidence-based approach and understanding a DC’s role in the multidiscipline sports medical model, where the DC is not the gatekeeper and knows how to be an asset and a team player for the athletic trainers and sports medicine medical doctors, chiropractic is
now becoming widely accepted. According to Dr. Palmer, “There aie so many opportunities for doctors of chiropractic to contribute to the success and well-being of athletes, whether in youth, high school, collegiate, and even professional levels. You just have to be willing to work hard and pay your dues to build your resume.”
Education is an area that the PBCS has had a passion for, but had not yet found the right opportunity to facilitate that passion. Education is vital, not only for students, but also for chiropractors who aie not associated with a professional baseball team. “It is a very unique honor and privilege to be able to share the gift of chiropractic with players in professional baseball,” said Dr. Bishop. This presents a platform to educate others and opens the door of opportunity to include both our future and present colleagues to participate in the PBCS and get a leg up on advancing their chances of becoming a team DC in the future. Dr. Palmer presented at many of the profession’s events, such as Parker Semináis and ACA Sport’s Council Semináis. His talks centered on helping to educate chiropractors about how to become the team DC, and once there, how to keep the job.
The PBCS has partnered with Life University on a Sports Performance Conference with an emphasis on baseball. This will take place on Life University’s campus in Marietta, Georgia in November 2016. The great thing about this seminal' is that it will be open to not only chiropractors, but also to athletic trainers and strength and conditioning specialists. This will be a multidisciplined conference
that will include a diverse range of sports medicine providers. Until recently, members of PBCS consisted of only team chiropractors in professional baseball. With the expansion of educational semináis, such as the one at Life University, the PBCS will now have membership opportunities for both students and chiropractors who ai e not affiliated with a professional baseball team. That will create a synergy where everyone benefits—the sports medicine staff, the team, the organization, and especially the athlete!
For more information, please visit the PBCS website at www.probaseballchiros.com.
Rick Bishop DC, CCSP® is a graduate of Sherman -«jP College of Chiropractic and has been in private '-Jb practice in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania since 2005. He is the Director of the Professional Baseball Chiropractic Society and is also the chiropractic consultantfor numerous visiting teams when playing at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Contact Info: Cell: 814-952-1427 Email: rick a drrickhishop. com
Alan Palmer DC has been the team chiropractic physician for high schools, colleges andfour professional teams including the Arizona Diamondbacks since 1998, the Phoenix Coyotes since 1996, the San Francisco Giants Chiropractor during spring training from 1996-2002 and the Phoenix Roadrunners AA Hockey Club. Contact Info: Cell: 480-221-2115 Email: dr.palmer(cfwellnessdoc. com
