Sanchez has surgery

Bits and pieces from the local sports scene.

Area standout has arthroscopic procedure on shoulder: Former Burbank High standout Freddy Sanchez, who helped the San Francisco Giants to a World Series Championship this past season, had surgery on his left shoulder Dec. 7 and is in the midst of an eight-week recovery.

According to the Oakland Tribune, Sanchez had arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder in Scottsdale, to correct problems he began incurring near the end of the regular season and during the postseason. The Giants thought the issues could be corrected through rest and rehabilitation, but the improvement wasn’t fast enough for either Sanchez or the Giants to head into the 2011 season, so Sanchez elected to have the surgery.

Sanchez had a biceps tenotomy, which provided more relief from pain. It’s essentially the surgical equivalent of what Edgar Renteria did during the playoffs against Atlanta, when he tore his bicep away from the tendon taking a swing during a game.

“We tried to rehab for three to four weeks to avoid this, but after several different opinions we decided —especially with the calendar — to go ahead and scope the shoulder,” Giants trainer Dave Groeschner told the Tribune. “Basically, they cut his bicep tendon and cleaned up the back of his shoulder. He had no repairs or anything.

“I think he’ll be behind in spring training because he’ll be rehabbing, but I think all the doctors he saw agreed that he should be back pretty quickly from there and he’ll be able to play baseball games in March, for sure.”

Sanchez had three different opinions on the shoulder, including two orthopedists the Giants employ and an independent one in Los Angeles. The Giants’ orthopedist in Arizona, Dr. Gary Waslewski (son of the former major league pitcher by the same name), performed the 30-minute procedure.

“It’s always a concern when you have to do surgery for a second time on the same body part, but I think talking with the doctor after the surgery, he was pretty pleased with the results,” Groeschner said.

Had the Giants not played all the way through the World Series, Sanchez might have avoided the surgery.

“If we had more time and we didn’t play the whole month of (October) we could have given him some more time for treatment and rehab,” Groeschner said. “But we don’t, so we had to do something, and Freddy was on board. He just wants to get better and be ready for the start of the season.”

The Giants aren’t sure how the injury might have occurred.

“It’s just something that got worse the last couple weeks of the postseason. We were kind of hoping with some rest and rehab it would get better, but it just never got to that point,” Groeschner said. “It was feeling better, but if you put a bat in make a thousand swings every week, we weren’t comfortable and he wasn’t comfortable of wanting to go into spring training that way. He wants to be healthy and feel good so he can play at a high level.”

Sanchez’s right shoulder also was bothering him at the end of the year, but rehab has successfully corrected those issues.

“That’s doing well,” Groeschner said. “Honestly, we had that checked out well and that’s doing fine. He did injure his shoulder, but it’s something that healed up and it’s doing well.”

Rains don’t cause many problems for local teams: Rains have been pelting the area for days, leaving soggy fields and a lot of standing water.

Fortunately for the local high school teams, the rain has caused minimal problems.

The Burbank High and Burroughs boys’ and girls’ soccer teams are off this week for winter break, and none of the squads had matches scheduled.

The only contest to be rained out occurred Tuesday. The Providence boys’ team was scheduled to play Yeshiva in a Liberty League game at the Glendale Sports Complex. However, the city of Glendale cancelled the contest, said Providence Athletic Director Andrew Bencze.

Jeff Tully