CINCINNATI — It takes many people behind the scenes to keep a professional sports team going. For the Cincinnati Reds, their team doctor is pivotal in keeping the players healthy and on the field.
What You Need To Know
- Dr. Tim Kremchek has been the Reds medical director for 26 years
- Kremchek operates on not only Reds players, but other athletes around the world
- His reputation is known around the league and he was one of the first to install surgery viewing rooms in his practice for agents and family
- Kremchek hopes to continue with the Reds until they win a World Series
Doctor Tim Kremchek spends a lot of time at Great American Ballpark.
“It’s 365," Kremchek said. "It doesn’t stop when the season ends.”
The Reds medical director of 26 years got the job when he was just 35.
“I was the guy they picked to kind of run and resurrect the medical program, change it, get it state-of-the-art, and I was 35 years old," he said. "I was in practice for three years.”
But it took the realization that he would never get to be a player on the field first before he realized his new dream.
“I said I want to be an orthopedic surgeon and my ultimate goal was to take care of a sports team and if I ever could, it would be the Cincinnati Reds," Kremchek said.
But in 1997, the Reds took a chance on the young doctor. Kremchek said he owes a lot of his success to Jim Andrews, the original baseball doctor who he spent a year shadowing.
“I’m going to go be a baseball doctor," he said. "And that’s what got me going. It fired me up. That guy changed my life.”
But 26 years alongside a baseball team merits a lot of stories. Kremchek has plenty, like after fixing Ken Griffey Jr’s hamstring and he won comeback player of the year. The all-star sent Kremchek some pretty incredible pictures.
“So I got them framed, and it cost me $7,000 to frame them," he said. "I said 'you gave me the pictures, that’s great. It cost me my mortgage to frame these things!' And we still laugh about it.”
Or sitting in Joe Torre’s front-row seats at Yankee stadium.
“How else can a guy like me get in Joe Torre’s seats at Yankee Stadium and having Derek Jeter and A-Rod come up and shake my hand and say, 'I’m glad to meet you?' Never!” he said.
At his practice in Sharonville, a suburb north of Cincinnati, his stories cover every square inch of the walls.
“I’ll sit in the room and I’ll see a patient, patients always like to look at the photos," Kremchek said. "I always like to say there’s a story behind every photo.”
Nearly every player he’s operated on lines along the walls.
“Senzel, we did his shoulder and his knee," he said. "Sonny Gray, we did his elbow.”
Kremchek even built a surgery viewing rooms for players' agents and families to watch. Each of those surgeries is followed up with one of these pictures.
“Players always come in and they’re always walking around, looking for their picture," he said. "Where’s my picture?”
The pictures all bring back fond memories for Kremchek and remind him just how glad he is that the Reds took a chance on a 35-year-old.
“If people ask me, what’s your dream job? It’s this!" Kremchek said. "I love baseball, I love the Reds, I love sports medicine. This isn’t a job.”
He never wants to stop.
“When you ask me when I’m going to stop, I never want to stop," he said. "I don’t want to stop until we’re playing the last game of the season on national television with a World Series trophy.”