2000 graduate working as trainer, physical therapist for Red Sox
Allison Mudge
Issue date: 2/1/06 Section: News
 Media Credit: News Staff File Photo/Rachel French Mike Reinold, a 2000 graduate of Northeastern, is now working as a physical trainer for the Boston Red Sox. Above is Fenway Park, where he takes care of baseball icons like Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke. |
Originally from Winthrop, Reinold graduated from Northeastern in 2000. Now 28, he recently took a position as athletic trainer and physical therapist for the Red Sox.
He said his two positions are distinctly different. "What I'm doing … basically is trying to take care of the players on a day-to-day basis, trying to keep them healthy, and when they do get injured, trying to get them on back on the field as fast as we can."
Reinold said his primary charge is looking after pitchers.
"My main role is taking care of the pitchers between starts, which is pretty critical," Reinold said. "They get sore and get tight and they need a lot of care in the five days between pitching."
Care during the time between starts includes basic exercises, stretching and icing, Reinold said.
"Being there making sure [the players] stay strong, stay in shape, just making sure they're ready to pitch the next time" is an important component of the job, he said.
Reinold worked his way up the ladder of sports therapy. After graduation, he worked at the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Ala., a center that deals with baseball and other sports-related injuries. There he worked under James Andrews, an orthopedic surgeon.
"I worked underneath him and the guys down there," Reinold said. "Basically they specialize in baseball player injuries and biomechanics and break down those injuries."
Working at the Institute for nearly six years paid off and it could be considered training for his current job, Reinold said. His job with the Sox was the result of a mutual courtship: He learned they were looking to hire a trainer, and the Sox knew of Reinold's experiences in Birmingham.
"It was the type of job I went to school to get," said Reinold, adding he grew up as a Sox fan. "Northeastern was very helpful with the co-op program because it gave me the motivation and initiative to seek out going down to Birmingham and going to work with the best and put myself in a position that was attractive for [the Sox]."