Ligament Latin = ligamenta
Diagram of the right knee.
Typical joint

In anatomy, a ligament is the fibrous tissue that connects bones to other bones and is also known as articular ligament, articular larua,^[1] fibrous ligament, or true ligament.

Ligament can also refer to:

• Peritoneal ligament: a fold of peritoneum or other membranes.
• Fetal remnant ligament: the remnants of a tubular structure from the fetal period of life.

The study of ligaments is known as desmology (from Greek δεσμός, desmos, "string"; and -λογία, -logia).

Ligaments are similar to tendons and fasciae as they are all made of collagen except that ligaments join one bone to another bone, tendons join muscle to bone and fasciae connect muscles to other muscles.

Articular ligaments[link]

"Ligament" most commonly refers to a band of tough, fibrous dense regular connective tissue comprising attenuated collagenous fibers. Ligaments connect bones to other bones to form a joint. They do not connect muscles to bones; that is the job of tendons. Some ligaments limit the mobility of articulations, or prevent certain movements altogether.

Capsular ligaments are part of the articular capsule that surrounds synovial joints. They act as mechanical reinforcements. Extra-capsular ligaments join together and provide joint stability. Intra-capsular ligaments, which are much less common,^{[citation needed]} also provide stability but permit a far larger range of motion. Cruciate ligaments occur in pairs.

Ligaments are viscoelastic. They gradually lengthen when under tension, and return to their original shape when the tension is removed. However, they cannot retain their original shape when stretched past a certain point or for a prolonged period of time. This is one reason why dislocated joints must be set as quickly as possible: if the ligaments lengthen too much, then the joint will be weakened, becoming prone to future dislocations.^{[citation needed]} Athletes, gymnasts, dancers, and martial artists perform stretching exercises to lengthen their ligaments, making their joints more supple.

The term "double-jointed" refers to people with more-elastic ligaments, allowing their joints to stretch and contort further. The medical term for describing such double-jointed persons is hyperlaxity.

The consequence of a broken ligament can be instability of the joint. Not all broken ligaments need surgery, but, if surgery is needed to stabilise the joint, the broken ligament can be repaired. Scar tissue may prevent this. If it is not possible to fix the broken ligament, other procedures such as the Brunelli procedure can correct the instability. Instability of a joint can over time lead to wear of the cartilage and eventually to osteoarthritis.

Examples[link]

Peritoneal ligaments[link]

Certain folds of peritoneum are referred to as ligaments. Examples include:

• The hepatoduodenal ligament, that surrounds the hepatic portal vein and other vessels as they travel from the duodenum to the liver.
• The broad ligament of the uterus, also a fold of peritoneum.

Fetal remnant ligaments[link]

Certain tubular structures from the fetal period are referred to as ligaments after they close up and turn into cord-like structures:^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

• Broström procedure

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

1. ^ "ligament" at Dorland's Medical Dictionary

Tommy John
Pitcher
Born: (1943-05-22) May 22, 1943 (age 69) Terre Haute, Indiana
Batted: Right	Threw: Left
MLB debut
September 6, 1963 for the Cleveland Indians
Last MLB appearance
May 25, 1989 for the New York Yankees
Career statistics
Win–Loss record	288–231
Earned run average	3.34
Strikeouts	2,245
Teams
Cleveland Indians (1963–1964) Chicago White Sox (1965–1971) Los Angeles Dodgers (1972–1974, 1976–1978) New York Yankees (1979–1982) California Angels (1982–1985) Oakland Athletics (1985) New York Yankees (1986–1989)
Career highlights and awards
4× All-Star (1968, 1978, 1979, 1980) 1976 Hutch Award 1976 NL Comeback Player of the Year 1981 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award

Thomas Edward John Jr. (born May 22, 1943) is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball whose 288 career victories rank as the seventh highest total among left-handers in major league history. He is also known for the revolutionary surgery, now named after him, which was performed on a damaged ligament in his pitching arm.^[1]

Playing career[link]

John was an outstanding basketball player at Gerstmeyer High School in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he held the city single game scoring record. Choosing baseball when he realized he would not go on to play professional basketball, John signed with the Cleveland Indians and made his major league debut at twenty years-old in 1963. Following two partial seasons with the Indians, John showed occasional excellence during seven respectable years as a starting pitcher with the Chicago White Sox. However, it was a trade before the 1972 season to the Los Angeles Dodgers for mercurial slugger Dick Allen that began a skein of John's most famous years, first with the Dodgers and subsequently with the New York Yankees, where he posted a pair of 20-win seasons and was twice an All-Star. John was also named an All-Star in 1968 with the White Sox and 1978 with LA. He played in all three Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series of his era (1977, 1978 and 1981), having switched over to the Yankees by the time the Dodgers won the Series in 1981.

John was a soft throwing sinkerball pitcher whose technique resulted in batters hitting numerous ground balls and induced double plays. In the middle of an excellent 1974 season, John had a 13-3 record as the Dodgers were en route to their first National League pennant in eight years, before he permanently damaged the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm, leading to a revolutionary surgical operation. This operation, now known as Tommy John surgery, replaced the ligament in the elbow of his pitching arm with a tendon from his right forearm. The surgery was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe on September 25, 1974, and although it seemed unlikely he would ever be able to pitch again, he spent the entire 1975 season in recovery. John would work with teammate and major league pitcher Mike Marshall who was said to know how to help pitchers recover from injuries and taught John a completely different way to pitch where he would not turn his leg and go straight to the plate which eliminated the chance of him hurting his knee and arm, and he returned to the Dodgers in 1976. His 10-10 record that year was considered "miraculous" but John went on to pitch until 1989, winning 164 games after his surgery—forty more than before and one fewer than all-time great Sandy Koufax won in his entire career. After Phil Niekro's retirement, John spent 1988 and 1989 as the oldest player in the major leagues. In 1989, John matched Deacon McGuire’s record for most seasons played in a Major League Baseball career with 26 seasons played, later broken by Nolan Ryan.^[2] Today, many pitchers have Tommy John surgery during their careers.

John decided it was time to retire in 1989, when Mark McGwire got two hits off him. McGwire's father was John's dentist. John said of his decision, "When your dentist's kid starts hitting you, it's time to retire!"^[3]

In 2009, John failed to get enough votes to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his last year of eligibility with only 31.7% of the vote.^[4]

Career statistics[link]

Post-retirement[link]

John did commentary on select games during WPIX's final year of broadcasting Yankee baseball in 1998. He also guest-hosted the Mike and Mike ESPN Radio program on June 26, 2008. It is unknown whether he will do any further work for the network. On December 17, 2006, John was named manager of the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Atlantic League, an independent minor league in the Northeast. He is currently the spokesman for Tommy John's Go-Flex, a joint cream for older athletes. He is also currently doing a national radio tour to promote this product as well as talk about life as a minor league coach, his years in the Major Leagues and to educate younger pitchers on taking care of their arms.^[5]

Tommy John resigned as manager of the Bridgeport Bluefish on July 8, 2009, to pursue a "non-baseball position" with Sportable Scoreboards.^[6] In two-and-a-half years of managing, he compiled a 159-176 won-lost record with Bridgeport.

Personal life[link]

Tommy married the former Sally Simmons on July 13, 1970. They are parents of four children—Tamara, Tommy III, Travis, and Taylor. In 1981, when Travis was two years old, he fell 37 feet from a third-floor window in his family's New Jersey vacation house, bounced off the fender of a car, swallowed his tongue, and then lay in a coma for 17 days. He later made a full recovery.^[7] On March 9, 2010, Taylor John, age 28, died as the result of a seizure and heart failure because of an overdose of prescription drugs.^[8] As a 10-year-old in 1992, Taylor’s singing and acting talents landed him a role in Les Misérables on Broadway. He made news by taking time off from the stage, however, to play baseball at Federal Little League in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.^[9] In 1998, Tamara John married Chicago Bears long snapper Patrick Mannelly.^[10]

External links[link]

[1] Tommy John at baseball-reference.com

See also[link]

• Tommy John surgery
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
• List of most hit batsman by MLB pitcher
• Top 100 Major League Baseball strikeout pitchers

Bibliography[link]

• The Tommy John Story, F.H. Revell Company, 1978. ISBN 0-8007-0923-3. (With Sally John and Joe Musser, foreword by Tommy Lasorda.)
• The Sally and Tommy John Story: Our Life in Baseball, Macmillan, 1983. ISBN 0-02-559260-2. (With Sally John.)
• TJ: My Twenty-Six Years in Baseball, Bantam, 1991. ISBN 0-553-07184-X. (With Dan Valenti.)

References[link]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• The Baseball Page