NEWSLETTER
Throughout the offseason and then again during trade season, we hear about players taking physicals before a transaction is completed. Although very occasionally the exchange of medical information and the subsequent physical causes an issue with completing the deal, it’s usually a very perfunctory, standard thing. Player takes physical, no problem, deal gets done.
But did you ever wonder what the physical entailed? How about the physicals every player goes through each year in Spring Training? Is it hard? Could you pass it? Is it more than just a turn-your-head-and-cough situation?
Thankfully for us, Seattle Mariners beat writer Ryan Divish took on the challenge so we don’t have to, and we can learn vicariously from his struggle.
Of the treadmill stress test, Divish says this:
Players say there is no real way to understand it unless you go through it.
For a middle-aged sportswriter in average shape, it was less than enjoyable. At 6.5 mph, the first two minutes were easy. The next two were like running around Green Lake.
Then it starts feeling uncomfortable, like a Fernando Rodney save situation, at 7.5 incline. When the treadmill reaches 10 degrees, there is a burning sensation in the chest that must feel what it’s like to swallow battery acid. Your feet feel like anvils.
And when you tap out at eight minutes, they push you to do 30 seconds more. The joy of the treadmill slowing is overshadowed by what it has done to you.
Boy, that just sounds awful. But the read from Divish is a really interesting peak behind the curtain at the physical process for players.
