Major League Baseball

Rangers' Bard preserves rib from TOS surgery

Published Feb. 18, 2014 12:07 p.m. ET

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SURPRISE, Ariz. -- If the symptoms that led to Thoracic Outlet Syndrome were the reasons for the struggles of Texas right-hander Daniel Bard, he'll have a reminder of it for the rest of his life.
    
Somewhere in his backpack is the rib that Bard had removed during his surgery for TOS.
    
It's boiled and bleached too. Bard knows that because he handled the duties himself.
    
"You know if you shoot a deer you have the skull and a taxidermist turns it into a pretty white skull mount," said Bard, who is in camp as a non-roster invitee and is rehabbing from his surgery. "I figured the same process would work for a bone."
    
Bard had his TOS surgery last month and was given the rib that was removed in a plastic medical jar. It sat in a bathroom for around a month and that was long enough for Bard's wife, Adair, who didn't like looking at what Bard called "a spare rib that wasn't cooked basically." The smell of the rib was also a little more than she could take too. With the options of throwing it out or coming up with another plan, Bard went the route of preserving the rib.

"I took it outside, boiled it, and threw it in bleach for a few hours," he said. "It came out nice and white and pretty."

The Houston native grew up in North Carolina and is an avid hunter. He has mounts from his hunts. As for his plans for the rib?

"Maybe I'll make a necklace out of it, we'll see," he said. "It would be pretty good to wear when I'm pitching."

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