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KISS IT GOODBYE: A gynecologist?

Yancy Street Gang Feb 03 2006 04:45 PM

I'm sure I wasn't the only one surprised to learn that in the 1950's, the Pirates' team physician was a gynecologist. What was especially surprising was that the team (and Frank Thomas) let the gynecologist do surgery on Thomas' hand. What's up with that? The book doesn't really explain how such a situation came about. It sounds like cronyism at its worst. "Hey, my friend Bob is some kind of a doctor! He can be the team physician! What? He's a gynecologist? Yeah, that should be okay." There's got to be more to this story.

Edgy DC Feb 03 2006 04:50 PM

Well, in their defense, and there's not a lot here, specialization wasn't so specialized in the fifties.

ScarletKnight41 Feb 03 2006 05:15 PM

When I was a kid, there was a minor league hockey franchise called the Long Island Ducks who played at the Commack Arena (may it rest in peace). For a very short time my father's partner, a radiologist, was the Ducks' team physician. He felt that many of these guys were too injured to play. Management decided to get a different team physician instead. So yeah, I can imagine a team going with the most malleable doctor available, even if he was far from being the most qualified.