Parents Want Kids to Have Tommy John Surgery for Stronger Arms

The medical procedure known as "Tommy John surgery" has always been considered a last resort: When a Major League Baseball pitcher suffers a career-threatening elbow injury, an elbow ligament can be replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body, possibly prolonging the pitcher's career.

But now something shocking is happening: Some parents are asking doctors to give their kids Tommy John surgery even when they're not injured, simply because they think it'll give their kids stronger throwing arms.

Fox 5 reports that there are actually parents out there who want the procedure -- first performed on Tommy John himself -- to be performed on their perfectly healthy kids, all so those kids might some day -- after the long recovery period from the surgery -- throwa baseball harder than they ever had before.

Fortunately, the doctor interviewed in the report says he tells such parents that their idea is crazy, and it's not clear that any doctor has ever performed the surgery on a kid as an "elective" procedure. But the mere fact that we're talking about it shows just how out of control some parents are when it comes to their kids' sports.