UMMC provides two decades of care to Mississippi Braves players

Published on Tuesday, September 3, 2024

By: Annie Oeth, aoeth@umc.edu

Photos By: Jay Ferchaud/ UMMC Communications

Since the first pitch was thrown at Trustmark Park in 2005, the University of Mississippi Medical Center has been part of the Mississippi Braves, with UMMC specialists serving as team physicians and providing sports medicine and imaging care.

"Not long after word came that the Mississippi Braves were coming to the Jackson metro area, we were flying to Atlanta to interview. We won the contract in 2005,” said Dr. William Geissler, Alan E. Freeland Chair of Orthopaedic Hand Surgery, professor and chief of the Division of Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery and chief of the Section of Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine at UMMC, and, for 20 years, team physician for the Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves.

After nearly two decades in Pearl, the Braves announced that this year would be the team’s last in Mississippi and that they would be relocating to Columbus, Georgia, soon putting a cap on a two-decades long relationship between UMMC and the minor league team.

Serving nearly as long is Dr. Christopher Boston of Hattiesburg Clinic’s Flowood Primary Care Clinic, who was previously a UMMC family medicine physician for seven years.

“Serving as team physician has been fun and rewarding,” Boston said. “You are on call 24-7, including all hours of the night, but it has been exciting to see the players who started with the Mississippi Braves – players like Dansby Swanson, Ozzie Albies, Spencer Strider, Michael Harris II, Ronald Acuna Jr., Austin Riley and so many others – and moved up to playing for the Atlanta Braves.”

Boston, a sports fan in general and baseball fan in particular, has visited every Major League Baseball ballpark, including Truist Park, home field for the Atlanta Braves, from 2003 to 2021.

Jeff Martinez, director of operations for orthopaedic surgery at UMMC, said the Medical Center has provided the best care to the team.

“When the M-Braves call, we say ‘Yes,’ whether that be sending a physician to their stadium or a player coming into the Pavilion for an exam and imaging,” Martinez said. “They will often call me at night and request a player be seen the following morning at the Pavilion. It takes a coordinated team of dedicated individuals — registration, radiology and clinic staff — to provide exceptional care to their players. We are proud to be teammates with the Mississippi Braves.”

Team physicians are often called in to evaluate and stabilize injured players.

"Baseball injuries are often elbow and shoulder injuries, and we also saw finger injuries and occasionally broken hands from getting hit by a ball or sliding into a base,” Geissler said. “We managed many acute and overuse orthopaedic injuries, but we also took care of the team and staff medically from common colds and illnesses to hypertension, rashes and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The team physician is called to evaluate an injured player, and often steroid or cortisone shots and X-rays or MRI scans follow.

The injuries have usually been few at first, Geissler said. “Baseball has a long season. At the beginning, the players are in great shape, but as the season passes, we would see some overuse injuries and a need for anti-inflammatories.”

Over the years, Geissler, Boston and the Sports Medicine team at UMMC have treated Chattanooga Lookouts, Biloxi Shuckers and Montgomery Biscuits, too.

“The team physician is there to care for both teams,” Geissler said. “We would evaluate and stabilize the visiting player, and then they would follow up with their team physician.”

Minor-league baseball players are ideal patients, he said. “Obviously, they want to be able to play in the big leagues, so they listen to their care team and are motivated to get well. The best part was treating a player and then seeing them back on the field playing.”

Dr. Mark Dodson, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery and, for the past two years, a team physician for the M-Braves, said Double-A, high school and college athletes are focusing on moving to a higher level of play.

“They don’t want an injury to keep them from moving to the next level,” said Dodson, who has followed the Atlanta Braves since childhood. “Our multidisciplinary care team works with trainers, so injuries won’t keep players from achieving their dreams.”

The physicians care for other athletes as well. Boston is team physician for athletic teams at Northwest Rankin high school, Millsaps College and the U.S. Ski Team. Geissler is a team consultant for numerous high school teams and the athletic programs at the University of Mississippi.

Working with the Braves organization has always been a point of pride, Geissler said.

“I was proud to see the UMMC Sports Medicine sign at Trustmark Park.”