I wrote a story for today's paper on Gig Harbor pitcher Brandon Rohde coming back from Tommy John surgery. Rohde was one of the state's top pitchers as a sophomore when he suffered the ligament tear in his left elbow. He missed his junior season, but that didn't stop the University of Washington from offering him a scholarship and Rohde signed a letter of intent in November. He's been dominant this spring, posting a 3-1 record.

While Rohde has a made a complete recovery like most who undergo ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction -- that's the medical term for Tommy John surgery -- it's becoming common practice for teenagers to require elbow reconstruction. And some parents have gone so far as to ask if their healthy child should get it.

The New York Times ran this interesting piece last year. The writer spoke to a handful of surgeons around the country that have expertise in performing Tommy John surgery. They all said that they are performing dozens more surgeries on children now than a decade ago.

That's partly a product of the surgery having such a huge success rate. But when parents start thinking it would be a good idea to snap their kid's elbow and replace it with a new tendon, hoping to make them throw harder and faster, well, the priorities need to be re-evaluated.