Lowell's hip 'has gotten progressively worse' by Jared Carrabis
In first year of retirement, Mike Lowell recognizes 'hip replacement is most likely inevitable'


Even after saying goodbye to baseball this past October, Mike Lowell has yet to been able to enjoy retirement without dealing with more hip problems.

WEEI.com's Rob Bradford recently caught up with Lowell, and the former Red Sox third baseman let fans in on the status of his hip. Unfortunately, even without partaking in baseball activities, Lowell's surgically repaired hip "has gone a little bit downhill."

"Without medication or pain management I don’t think I can run 50 yards right now," Lowell said. "I know I can't. I don’t want to be taking meds to go about my day-to-day life. I feel like my quality of life is going down a little bit. I want to teach my kid how to run the bases in Little League instead of just standing there. It seems trivial but it bothers me that I can’t do it."

Bradford wrote that Lowell understands that "hip replacement is most likely inevitable". Lowell's hip gave him fits in 2010, even in his limited role, and the third baseman revealed that he "got through artificially with anti-inflammatories and pain medication", but that he doesn't "know if that was the greatest thing for the hip", and made it clear that he didn't "regret doing it".

As a result, another hip surgery may be in his near future. Lowell told Bradford that he went to New York last weekend, and after having X-rays done on his hip, doctors told him that "it has gotten progressively worse, so I got another cortisone shot and I think I might have to have a resurfacing surgery around September."

Lowell, who turned down a four-year offer from the Phillies after hitting free agency following the 2007 season, seems to have reached his retirement at just the right time. It’s unfortunate that Lowell has to endure all the pain that he has, but if there’s a positive to be taken from all of this, it’s that no one can ever tell him that he never gave everything he had to the game of baseball.

As far as the farewell that Red Sox fans gave Lowell on "Mike Lowell Day" at Fenway Park last October, the goodbye may not be for long, as Bradford reports that Lowell "has had offers from multiple national media outlets to serve as a baseball analyst.”

Aside from his hip troubles, Lowell has been "surprisingly happy" in his retirement.

-Jared Carrabis

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Published on February 07, 2011

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