Rash of odd injuries in baseball

[ctorg]

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandf...ld/8988734.htm
Rash of strange injuries afflicts baseball

By Kevin Baxter

Knight Ridder Newspapers


Even by baseball's usual comic standards, this has been a great year for injuries.

How can you not get excited about a season in which a future Hall of Famer lands on the disabled list with injuries suffered in a sneezing incident? Or in which three players are hurt in sleeping accidents.

And how about Atlanta outfielder J.D. Drew, who missed three games after straining his neck while swimming in a friend's pond?

And those are just the stories we believe. San Diego Padres pitcher David Wells, whose colorful personal life is the stuff of legend, tried out a number of explanations for the severed tendon in his right wrist and the cut on his left palm before deciding on this one: He tripped over a bar stool while playfully chasing a buddy who had tapped him on the back, falling on a glass and bottle he was carrying.

Uh, sure, David. Anything you say.

Beware of the bat

But then again, maybe it is true. After all, it's not the only strange injury Padres trainers have treated this year. Ryan Klesko missed more than a week with a back strain sustained when he stood for the national anthem, and pitcher Akinora Otsuka was hurt when he was hit in the face by a bat thrown to him by a fan requesting an autograph. Otsuka said he missed the bat when he became distracted by a piece of paper thrown at him by another autograph seeker, prompting this sage advice from manager Bruce Bochy: "Aki, next time, catch the bat and let the paper hit you."

Vince Naimoli, managing general partner of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, also was struck by a flying bat this season, though neither he nor his guest, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, were hurt. And they say Iraq is dangerous.

Then there's the Baltimore Orioles' Larry Bigbie, who missed a start this year after stubbing his toe in his hotel room - although as stupid toe injuries go, that was mild. When Mark Grace played for the Arizona Diamondbacks, he broke his toe crossing the clubhouse to congratulate teammate Damian Miller on making the All-Star team. And St. Louis Cardinals minor-leaguer Mike Crudale broke his toe answering the phone last spring.

The spate of injuries is no laughing matter for the players involved, of course, nor for Elliot Pellman, Major League Baseball's medical adviser, who was recently quizzed by a New York newspaper about the increased number of players on the disabled list. Through the first third of the season, debilitating injuries are up nearly 25 percent from last year, and some inside baseball are wondering if the sport's new drug-testing policy is to blame.

No steroids, no strength

Players who freely used performance-enhancing drugs in the past have quit cold turkey, one theory goes, leaving them brittle and susceptible to injury. Medical experts, however, have been quick to dismiss that suggestion.

"It would be hard off the top to come up with a cause-and-effect explanation for that related to steroids," NYU medical professor Gary Wadler, a board member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, told T.J. Quinn of The New York Daily News. "I'm not sure that has legs."

Which means there really is no explanation for why the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa, who is strong enough to hit 549 career home runs, could miss a month after hurting his back sneezing. But at least he was awake when he got hurt. In spring training Oakland pitcher Rich Harden strained his shoulder turning off his alarm clock, and the Marlins' Bryce Florie crashed into sliding doors while sleepwalking. Weeks later Tampa Bay's Rocco Baldelli was unable to play in the field in a regular-season game after he fell asleep propped up in front of the television and strained a muscle.

All are deserving of the Chris Brown Sleeping Disorder Prize, named for the former San Francisco Giant who begged out of a game once claiming he "slept on his eye wrong."

Even Sosa would have to admit all this is pretty funny ... if it didn't hurt so much.

And if it doesn't hurt, well, then it's just plain funny. And since time heals all wounds, let's pause to recall a few classic baseball injuries that only hurt when we laugh:

Former Red Sox and Devil Rays slugger Wade Boggs lost his balance pulling on a pair of cowboy boots and fell into a couch, hurting himself enough to miss a week. Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Gomez, while trying to knock dirt from his spikes, smashed his bat into his ankle instead and had to be carried off the field. And Richie Sexson, when he played with Milwaukee, strained a neck muscle stretching out a new cap.

But none of them can compete with perhaps the greatest baseball injury of all time, as related by Thomas Boswell of The Washington Post. Clarence "Climax" Blethen was a 30-year-old Red Sox rookie in 1923 who thought he looked meaner if he took out his false teeth when he pitched, putting them in his hip pocket for safe keeping. Trouble was, he often forgot to put them back in when he left the mound, so while sliding into second base one afternoon, Blethen bit himself in the butt.

[cooper_gd]

Originally Posted by ctorg

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandf...ld/8988734.htm
Clarence "Climax" Blethen was a 30-year-old Red Sox rookie in 1923 who thought he looked meaner if he took out his false teeth. . .

Why was he called Climax I wonder?