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Roger Mooney

Roger Mooney covers the Tampa Bay Rays for The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and News Channel 8. He has covered the Rays since their first season in 1998, including 11 years for the Bradenton Herald. Roger has also covered Florida, South Florida and Florida State football, the Bucs and the Lightning.

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Cobb has scar and rib from surgery

Posted Aug 23, 2011 by Roger Mooney

Updated Aug 23, 2011 at 05:39 PM

ROGER MOONEY
ST. PETERSBURG Alex Cobb returned to the Rays clubhouse this afternoon, minus one rib but thankful his ordeal is over.

The rookie right-hander had surgery Thursday to remove a clot in his right subclavian vein. The surgery, delayed almost a week because of a case of pancreatitis, included removing his right first rib.

Cobb has the rib.

“I’ve got the rib at my house,” Cobb said. “My dad asked me to keep it. It’s in a jar. It looks like a rib. It looks like you went to Chili’s and got a little baby rib and put it in a jar of liquid.”

Cobb heard that one pitcher actually keeps his rib in a jar in his locker for good luck. Cobb said he might do that, figuring it would bring him better luck than the owl made of pine cone that Wade Davis has and placed in Cobb’s locker the night before he’s last start, the one that ended after 4 1/3 innings because of discomfort and numbness in his right hand and arm.

“They’ve removed the problem, so there’s no chance for it reoccurring unless I grow another rib there,” Cobb said.

The surgery, performed in Dallas by Dr. Gregory Pearl, an expert in this field, was delayed because of the pancreatitis.

“I was just in tons of pain,” Cobb said. “I couldn’t eat. I just wanted them to put me to sleep. I was in there for four or five days. I was just aching. My whole stomach was just killing me. It just felt like they were ripping my insides, and then the next day it felt like boxers just came in and (hit) on my stomach for like two hours.”

Cobb said will not throw until the Rays offseason throwing program for pitchers begins in January. Cobb expects to be 100 percent by the start of spring training.

“They have a pretty in depth rehab process starting back at square one of just breathing, like Lamaze classes,” he said. “I’m just trying to get my lungs filled back up and I’m trying to prevent anything else from happening along that line.”