Ten games into the 1982 pre-season exhibition schedule, and the reigning SJL East champs, the Pittsburgh Roadrunners, have already had some very bad luck with injuries to their premiere outfielder.
First, Matt Van der Heyden, the SJL MVP the past two seasons and almost surely the best player in the game today, went down with elbow inflammation early in the 5th game of the pre-season and will miss much of the exhibition schedule.
And then, yesterday, left fielder Larry Leshane, a 3-time All-Star who had a 6.1 WAR season in 1981, suffered broken bone in his elbow, and he will be out for the entire season. Fortunately the Roadrunners have some depth in their outfield ranks and 26-year old Victor Oseguera will be given the first crack at the starting job in left. Oseguera has a decent bat and is much better defensively than Leshane, but Leshane's potent bat will be missed in the middle of that lineup.
On a more tragic note, the Boston Berserkers talented young two-way player Jason Walkinshaw, who at age 24 has suffered a series of injuries in his professional career, was diagnosed with the second torn rotator cuff in 3 years and it appears he will be stepping away from a promising career very prematurely.
