August 21, 2025 • 12 mins
Tony talks with Bob Mangine from UC and NovaCare about blisters on ESPN 1530!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back. We roll along our number three thanks to
Penn Station at since E three to sixty on the
home of the Bengals ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
as we do each and every Thursday. Our guy Bob
Manjean from the University of Cincinnati and Novacare is here
to join us for a couple of minutes, and I
wanted to ask you about something going on with the
Cincinnati Reds that we've seen now a couple times with
(00:21):
the same player, Bob, What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
How are you, Tony just enjoying moving day on campus
that you see where you can't go from point A
to point B quickly?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Do you still offer up your services as someone that
helps these these student athletes move into their dorms?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
How nice? How much nicer are the dorms now than
when I played?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, I mean, you got a couple of things are
going on now. We've doilt a series of new dorms,
there's a series of new apartment complexes, and you've seen
built around campus. You know what I got here Back
in seventy seven, there wasn't much at all. It was
a commuter college. It wasn't really a college he came
to and lived on campus, and now it's converted to being,
(01:11):
you know, live on campus community. So a lot of
the older homes have been converted that apartments. They're building
brand new Uptown Reality is building all kinds of new apartments.
The university's built new dorms. A lot of the players
live over in ourn apartment complex called Cory. Other players
(01:31):
live in different apartment complexes now, so it's a completely
different environment and time of year or time of athletics
where the kids are mostly living out of doors and
living on you know, living in apartments.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Let me ask you about something that actually someone reached
out to us on social media yesterday and asked about
to Nicklodolo. You know, the Reds are in the thick
of a wild card hunt right now. They enter today
one game behind the New York Mets, six games over
five hundred. Yet they're doing so right now without the
services of one of their starting pitchers who is having
a good year in Nick Loodolo. Right now, he's not
(02:17):
with the team, Bob, because of a blister on his
left hand, and he is obviously a left handed pitcher.
This isn't the first time that Lodolo has dealt with
a blister. He's been on the the angur List multiple
times because of that. And I think if you just
think blister, you're like, wow, does he really need to
miss that much time? But talk about just the let's
start with maybe the pain and what can cause a
(02:38):
blister on the pitching hand of a major league baseball
pitcher and how hard that can be to navigate.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
They can be pretty hard to navigate it, obviously in
this case, especially because blisters are friction stress points. So
when you get him on your foot, your hand, kids
with weightlifting get him in the palm in their hand.
Pictures obviously are trying to put different pressures with their
fingers on the ball. And anytime you have a friction
(03:05):
point where it's a rum mark, when you get that
skin rum mark on the under layer of subputaneous tissue
and fashion, you can end up with a blister. And
all the blister is it's a hotspot. So the body
it gaps and says, well, I'm going to produce some
extra fluid, and all of a sudden you have this
(03:26):
fluid filled pocket and you've got to be careful, you know.
I tell many people, you know, don't automatically pop them
until you're sure that you've got to strow environment because
if you go and pop these things, they can get
infected on you. So you've got to be really careful
with that. So the bottom line is that you know,
when you get it on a pitcher, they need those
(03:48):
fingers for control. They have to put those fingers across
the seams of the ball. They have to put them
a long parallel to the seams of the ball, and
when it's come out of their hand, that ball is
being porked by the hand and the fingers to get
the spin that you want, whether it's a you know, curveball,
slider or whatever. Now, once you start building up that
(04:10):
fluid underneath the skin, i e. Your hotspot turns to
a blister. Now all of a sudden, it hurts. I mean,
and you've had your share of blisters, you know what
I'm talking about. And you have to be very protective
to make sure that you're not going to get a
infection between the skin and the subcutaneous tissue. There's all
(04:30):
kinds of products that we make now that try to
mimic skin, but again in a picture's case, they don't
work very well, they also make different products that you
can paint literally paint on the skin to try to
stiffen that tissue. But again that's you know, that is
(04:52):
only superficial when you're trying to squeeze a ball and
then rip that ball at you know, eighty ninety miles
an hour, it still leaves your hand with a friction mark,
and so you know, again you've got to protect that skin.
You know, modalities we use or things like you know,
(05:12):
laser or electrical stem to reduce the swelling. But again,
you're trying to give that skin and this is I'm
sure with the you know, what their staff is trying
to do is get that skin to toughen up and
scar down so that you can put that ball in
your hand again and really get the grip that you
need to control your slider and your curveball.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
When it's something that we've seen now saw twice last
year with the finger, we see it once this year.
Are there certain players, because I would imagine every pitcher
in Major League Baseball is put an immense amount of
pressure on their finger and on the pressure points. Is
it just one of those things, as we've talked about
last week with soft tissue injuries as well. Are there
just players that are more susceptible to to getting and
(05:57):
struggling with with maybe blisters than other players would be.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Oh sure, you know there's kids who are You know,
there are players or people with more sensitive skin, and
the bottom line is that they may be more susceptible
to getting that rub triction hot spot. And again once
it happens, now you want to take some precaution with
(06:22):
it in the future, and you can do some techniques
to toughen the skin up. But again, the skin is
one thing. The blister occurs between the outer dermis layer
and the under layer, and it's that area under the
layer that starts to bubble up or the fluid builds up.
(06:42):
In order to protect it so that, you know, the
player has to be a little bit careful so that
they you know, again don't get that thing infected, and
the staff really has to manage it well. But again,
you're trying to get that tissue toughened up to get
them back out there and pitching, and you can use
modalities and you can use some other techniques to try
(07:05):
to get them to have good sensation control. Again, you know,
you get hyper sensitive it's very touchy feeling type of situation,
so that you uh uh, you know you you're not
very comfortable, and sometimes you have to desensitize the skin.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
How much how much are you From a rehab standpoint,
I would imagine you have to let it heal completely.
If not, you're going to just reopen the blister. It
would feel like so ye from a I guess a
treatment point of view, that there is no way to
kind of rush treatment along. There's no way to get
back out there earlier. You've got to make sure things
are completely healed, especially if you don't want to run
(07:46):
the risk of a reaggravation of the blister.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right, you don't want to you don't want to reaggravate it.
You want to make sure the skin is completely intact.
You want to make sure they're slowly doing activities again,
just like almost any other soft taste, because this is
a problem in a player who's a skilled position thrower,
who requires to have that grip to get the spin
(08:13):
on the ball that they need in order to control
what they want to come out of their hand. And
that's not easy.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
How long are you is it? Every blister is going
to take its own kind of course own path because
we've seen now with the Reds as it pertains to
Lodolo that he's going to start throwing. Now he's going
to start facing some hitters. I would imagine you're just
extremely careful leading up and then once you're cleared, you're
back to It's not one of those injuries. Would imagine
you have to kind of lean back in on a
(08:41):
pitch count your first start. Once it's healthy, you're back
ready to go.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
It should be, you know, in most cases it should be.
But again, you're ramping it up just like they're doing progressively.
You know, they're taking their time in terms of in
terms of having hands start slow aggressive build up where
they're just letting him throw some batting practice and they
throw some this. You know, then they might try, hey,
(09:08):
let's do a little curveball, let's try a little slider,
you know, see how it feels coming out in your hand,
and then you know, go from go from there. But
again it's also load. You know, does he just throw
ten pitches, does he throw twenty pitches? Is he a
reliever coming in for just you know, in half an inning,
(09:29):
or is he going to face one batter? Or does
they expect him to start, do they expect him to go?
And again, in his case, obviously he's a starter. You know,
they're expecting him to go six you know, six six
and a half innings.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
That is that's Bob man Jean from the University of
Cincinnati Novacare Bob all the sports you've worked with over
the years. Do you have a favorite that you've worked with,
like a not a favorite athlete, because we know the
answer to that, but do you have a favorite sport?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, obviously I've wor football and basketball my whole career.
You know, That's what I started with in college at
the University of Pittsburgh. Uh. And over the years, I've
been blessed to work with some great athletes like yourself
and and enjoy my time at the universities and say
with football and and then you got to spend time
(10:18):
working uh uh, you know basketball here with some great
athletes as well. So you know, I really enjoy football
and basketball a lot. You know, it's just when you
get my age to the football anymore, so you know,
you've got to move on. And I'm fortunate enough to
hopefully finish up my career doing college basketball.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
What about from an athlete standpoint, not that maybe the best,
but just the best share all around athlete. Does someone
stand out.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well, obviously it's Tony Pikes. I mean, you know, there's
there's only one Tony Pike, you know, and I try
to pike, you know. So we're very fortunate that, you know,
Tony was able to teach Travis how to be the
great athlete that he is and jasoner than he was.
(11:08):
Thank you. So, you know, that was the top of
my career, Austin, was the ability to work with Tony.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Austin, Let's clip that and then let's send out to
the folks at New Heights if we can see what
I can do. Bob, you're the best man. I look
forward to talking every week. When we talk. Next week
we either be talking about the Bearcats getting ready to
play at Nebraska or the Bearcats beating the Cornhuskers, one
of the two. I look forward to catching up next week.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
You got it. I'm ready for it.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Leank you. Thank you, Bob, have a great week. That
is Bob man Jean, University of Cincinnati and Novacare, whether
you're dealing with injury or just making you hell the priority,
Novacare rehabilitations here for you. There's no better time than
now to make Novacares movement experts part of your healthcare team.
Starting care is easy, and for some may not even
require a prescription for physical therapy from your doctor. To
(11:57):
learn more, go to novacare dot com. Today, we'll be
back to wrap things up quick hits Next. ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati sports station
Welcome back. We roll along our number three thanks to
Penn Station at since E three to sixty on the
home of the Bengals ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station,
as we do each and every Thursday. Our guy Bob
Manjean from the University of Cincinnati and Novacare is here
to join us for a couple of minutes, and I
wanted to ask you about something going on with the
Cincinnati Reds that we've seen now a couple times with
(00:21):
the same player, Bob, What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
How are you, Tony just enjoying moving day on campus
that you see where you can't go from point A
to point B quickly?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Do you still offer up your services as someone that
helps these these student athletes move into their dorms?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
How nice? How much nicer are the dorms now than
when I played?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, I mean, you got a couple of things are
going on now. We've doilt a series of new dorms,
there's a series of new apartment complexes, and you've seen
built around campus. You know what I got here Back
in seventy seven, there wasn't much at all. It was
a commuter college. It wasn't really a college he came
to and lived on campus, and now it's converted to being,
(01:11):
you know, live on campus community. So a lot of
the older homes have been converted that apartments. They're building
brand new Uptown Reality is building all kinds of new apartments.
The university's built new dorms. A lot of the players
live over in ourn apartment complex called Cory. Other players
(01:31):
live in different apartment complexes now, so it's a completely
different environment and time of year or time of athletics
where the kids are mostly living out of doors and
living on you know, living in apartments.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Let me ask you about something that actually someone reached
out to us on social media yesterday and asked about
to Nicklodolo. You know, the Reds are in the thick
of a wild card hunt right now. They enter today
one game behind the New York Mets, six games over
five hundred. Yet they're doing so right now without the
services of one of their starting pitchers who is having
a good year in Nick Loodolo. Right now, he's not
(02:17):
with the team, Bob, because of a blister on his
left hand, and he is obviously a left handed pitcher.
This isn't the first time that Lodolo has dealt with
a blister. He's been on the the angur List multiple
times because of that. And I think if you just
think blister, you're like, wow, does he really need to
miss that much time? But talk about just the let's
start with maybe the pain and what can cause a
(02:38):
blister on the pitching hand of a major league baseball
pitcher and how hard that can be to navigate.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
They can be pretty hard to navigate it, obviously in
this case, especially because blisters are friction stress points. So
when you get him on your foot, your hand, kids
with weightlifting get him in the palm in their hand.
Pictures obviously are trying to put different pressures with their
fingers on the ball. And anytime you have a friction
(03:05):
point where it's a rum mark, when you get that
skin rum mark on the under layer of subputaneous tissue
and fashion, you can end up with a blister. And
all the blister is it's a hotspot. So the body
it gaps and says, well, I'm going to produce some
extra fluid, and all of a sudden you have this
(03:26):
fluid filled pocket and you've got to be careful, you know.
I tell many people, you know, don't automatically pop them
until you're sure that you've got to strow environment because
if you go and pop these things, they can get
infected on you. So you've got to be really careful
with that. So the bottom line is that you know,
when you get it on a pitcher, they need those
(03:48):
fingers for control. They have to put those fingers across
the seams of the ball. They have to put them
a long parallel to the seams of the ball, and
when it's come out of their hand, that ball is
being porked by the hand and the fingers to get
the spin that you want, whether it's a you know, curveball,
slider or whatever. Now, once you start building up that
(04:10):
fluid underneath the skin, i e. Your hotspot turns to
a blister. Now all of a sudden, it hurts. I mean,
and you've had your share of blisters, you know what
I'm talking about. And you have to be very protective
to make sure that you're not going to get a
infection between the skin and the subcutaneous tissue. There's all
(04:30):
kinds of products that we make now that try to
mimic skin, but again in a picture's case, they don't
work very well, they also make different products that you
can paint literally paint on the skin to try to
stiffen that tissue. But again that's you know, that is
(04:52):
only superficial when you're trying to squeeze a ball and
then rip that ball at you know, eighty ninety miles
an hour, it still leaves your hand with a friction mark,
and so you know, again you've got to protect that skin.
You know, modalities we use or things like you know,
(05:12):
laser or electrical stem to reduce the swelling. But again,
you're trying to give that skin and this is I'm
sure with the you know, what their staff is trying
to do is get that skin to toughen up and
scar down so that you can put that ball in
your hand again and really get the grip that you
need to control your slider and your curveball.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
When it's something that we've seen now saw twice last
year with the finger, we see it once this year.
Are there certain players, because I would imagine every pitcher
in Major League Baseball is put an immense amount of
pressure on their finger and on the pressure points. Is
it just one of those things, as we've talked about
last week with soft tissue injuries as well. Are there
just players that are more susceptible to to getting and
(05:57):
struggling with with maybe blisters than other players would be.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Oh sure, you know there's kids who are You know,
there are players or people with more sensitive skin, and
the bottom line is that they may be more susceptible
to getting that rub triction hot spot. And again once
it happens, now you want to take some precaution with
(06:22):
it in the future, and you can do some techniques
to toughen the skin up. But again, the skin is
one thing. The blister occurs between the outer dermis layer
and the under layer, and it's that area under the
layer that starts to bubble up or the fluid builds up.
(06:42):
In order to protect it so that, you know, the
player has to be a little bit careful so that
they you know, again don't get that thing infected, and
the staff really has to manage it well. But again,
you're trying to get that tissue toughened up to get
them back out there and pitching, and you can use
modalities and you can use some other techniques to try
(07:05):
to get them to have good sensation control. Again, you know,
you get hyper sensitive it's very touchy feeling type of situation,
so that you uh uh, you know you you're not
very comfortable, and sometimes you have to desensitize the skin.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
How much how much are you From a rehab standpoint,
I would imagine you have to let it heal completely.
If not, you're going to just reopen the blister. It
would feel like so ye from a I guess a
treatment point of view, that there is no way to
kind of rush treatment along. There's no way to get
back out there earlier. You've got to make sure things
are completely healed, especially if you don't want to run
(07:46):
the risk of a reaggravation of the blister.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right, you don't want to you don't want to reaggravate it.
You want to make sure the skin is completely intact.
You want to make sure they're slowly doing activities again,
just like almost any other soft taste, because this is
a problem in a player who's a skilled position thrower,
who requires to have that grip to get the spin
(08:13):
on the ball that they need in order to control
what they want to come out of their hand. And
that's not easy.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
How long are you is it? Every blister is going
to take its own kind of course own path because
we've seen now with the Reds as it pertains to
Lodolo that he's going to start throwing. Now he's going
to start facing some hitters. I would imagine you're just
extremely careful leading up and then once you're cleared, you're
back to It's not one of those injuries. Would imagine
you have to kind of lean back in on a
(08:41):
pitch count your first start. Once it's healthy, you're back
ready to go.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
It should be, you know, in most cases it should be.
But again, you're ramping it up just like they're doing progressively.
You know, they're taking their time in terms of in
terms of having hands start slow aggressive build up where
they're just letting him throw some batting practice and they
throw some this. You know, then they might try, hey,
(09:08):
let's do a little curveball, let's try a little slider,
you know, see how it feels coming out in your hand,
and then you know, go from go from there. But
again it's also load. You know, does he just throw
ten pitches, does he throw twenty pitches? Is he a
reliever coming in for just you know, in half an inning,
(09:29):
or is he going to face one batter? Or does
they expect him to start, do they expect him to go?
And again, in his case, obviously he's a starter. You know,
they're expecting him to go six you know, six six
and a half innings.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
That is that's Bob man Jean from the University of
Cincinnati Novacare Bob all the sports you've worked with over
the years. Do you have a favorite that you've worked with,
like a not a favorite athlete, because we know the
answer to that, but do you have a favorite sport?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Well, obviously I've wor football and basketball my whole career.
You know, That's what I started with in college at
the University of Pittsburgh. Uh. And over the years, I've
been blessed to work with some great athletes like yourself
and and enjoy my time at the universities and say
with football and and then you got to spend time
(10:18):
working uh uh, you know basketball here with some great
athletes as well. So you know, I really enjoy football
and basketball a lot. You know, it's just when you
get my age to the football anymore, so you know,
you've got to move on. And I'm fortunate enough to
hopefully finish up my career doing college basketball.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
What about from an athlete standpoint, not that maybe the best,
but just the best share all around athlete. Does someone
stand out.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well, obviously it's Tony Pikes. I mean, you know, there's
there's only one Tony Pike, you know, and I try
to pike, you know. So we're very fortunate that, you know,
Tony was able to teach Travis how to be the
great athlete that he is and jasoner than he was.
(11:08):
Thank you. So, you know, that was the top of
my career, Austin, was the ability to work with Tony.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Austin, Let's clip that and then let's send out to
the folks at New Heights if we can see what
I can do. Bob, you're the best man. I look
forward to talking every week. When we talk. Next week
we either be talking about the Bearcats getting ready to
play at Nebraska or the Bearcats beating the Cornhuskers, one
of the two. I look forward to catching up next week.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
You got it. I'm ready for it.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Leank you. Thank you, Bob, have a great week. That
is Bob man Jean, University of Cincinnati and Novacare, whether
you're dealing with injury or just making you hell the priority,
Novacare rehabilitations here for you. There's no better time than
now to make Novacares movement experts part of your healthcare team.
Starting care is easy, and for some may not even
require a prescription for physical therapy from your doctor. To
(11:57):
learn more, go to novacare dot com. Today, we'll be
back to wrap things up quick hits Next. ESPN fifteen
thirty Cincinnati sports station
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