August 22, 2000
"The Pop Is Back In My Fastball!" - Dwight "Doc" Gooden
After getting off to a slow start this year pitching for and being let go from both the Houston Astros and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Dwight Gooden is back on the mound in a New York Yankees uniform. "The way I feel right now, age is not a factor. They're probably going to have to rip the uniform off my back to stop me from playing," said Doc Gooden after the second in a series of treatments with Al Meilus of Meilus Muscular Therapy and Sports, in Pinellas Park, Florida, and his TherboTM robot that is revolutionizing physical therapy.
Gooden, who has been pitching for 17 years starting with the 1984 Mets, has had a stellar career. The Cy Young Award winner in 1985, he had three consecutive seasons of striking out 200 or more batters before undergoing surgery on his shoulder in 1991. Near the end of every season since, he said, he felt a "breakdown" in the strength of his arm, a weakness that would not go away by "bulking up." The shoulder just felt dead. As he got older, the more he was afraid that baseball would give him up for younger, stronger players.
After being released from the Devil Rays, and at the urging of friend Jeff "Cisco" Ciszkowski, Gooden made an appointment to see Al Meilus. Al explained to Gooden that, "as muscles are overused, they shorten." If you don't lengthen, as well as strengthen, muscles, you lose power. "It's pure physics," says Al Meilus. "You have to strengthen muscles to get good at your sport, but you have to lengthen those muscles to stay good at your sport. Otherwise, you'd have to retire at the ripe old age of 35," Meilus told Gooden.
Gooden's return to the New York Yankees was highlighted, on July 21, by six strong innings pitched against his former teammates, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Doc pitched six innings - 96 pitches of which 61 were strikes - allowing one run and eight hits. Gooden said "I was inconsistent when I played for the Devil Rays. A lot of it was mechanical. But (the treatments) have been a blessing for me. I've now got a range of motion that I haven't had since I was 19! My comeback in baseball would not have been possible without the robotic treatments." And his fastball, that was clocked at 87 mph before the first treatment, has come back. After two treatments, it has increased to 93 mph.
Since he signed with the Yankees on June 10, Gooden has looked like the skilled pitcher of old. He was originally signed to a minor league contract but moved up in the Yankees organization after several impressive outings. He is now continuing his work with Al Meilus and the TherboTM robot, along with sessions with Billy Connors, the Yankees' "pitching doctor." Gooden says that he has improved not only the speed of his pitching but also his extension and his motion. "The ball just jumps out of my hand now," he says.
Developed with funds from the Department of Energy, Lockheed Martin Corporation and the University of South Florida, Al Meilus has developed a robot that is treating muscle pain in a whole new way. Meilus conceived the idea after a personal experience with muscle pain that did not respond to conventional medical treatment. He left a successful career with General Electric Corporation as an electric engineer and program manager of automation engineering to pursue the development of the robot.
In a six-year project, which has seen many prototypes used and improved on, Meilus began using the automated robot in January 1999. He presented the TherboTM for the first time publicly at the Super Shootout at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, part of pre-Super Bowl festivities. At that time and since, many professional athletes have chosen to be treated by the robot with some amazing results. Al now regularly treats golfers, baseball players, hockey players, football players and ice skaters.
Meilus Muscular Therapy and Sports, Inc., has sold more than 500 devices throughout the world. The units range in price from $1,700 for a portable unit that folds up and fits in a golf bag to $20,000 for a fully automated, computer-controlled unit. He is currently working with several professional sports teams that have purchased units in order to treat their own athletes with this revolutionary robotic process. He also maintains a treatment facility in Pinellas Park, Florida, and has recently opened the first of a series of franchise offices in Detroit [Royal Oak]. Other satellite offices are currently being planned for Atlanta, Cleveland and Toronto.
For more information on TherboTM and Meilus Muscular Therapy and Sports, contact Al Meilus, Meilus Muscular Therapy and Sports, 8301 49th Avenue N. Pinellas Park, FL 33781 or call 727-547-1233 or visit the web site at www.meilus.com.
