Wounding More Than Just Your Pride
Geoff Blum of the Houston Astros was placed on the team’s 15-day disabled list after injuring his elbow. The “pop” that Blum felt in his right elbow on last Thursday wasn’t the result of a mighty swing of the bat or because of errant throw. Rather, the “loose bodies” the doctors later reported to discover in Blum’s throwing arm are being blamed on his attempt to put on his dress shirt following the Astros game against the Padres last week.
“He was putting on his shirt after the game, and his elbow goes, ‘Boom, pop,’ and it blows up on him,” Astros manager, Brad Mills, said.
Don’t laugh. All right, go ahead.
But this type of off-field injury isn’t just reserved for us aging former and wannabe athletes.
Ken Griffey Jr. once injured his back while lifting boxes (he also had to miss a game after his protective cup slipped and pinched his testicle, ouch!), Bob Feller burned himself while trying to fix his whirlpool, Larry Anderson pulled a rib muscle exiting his Jacuzzi, Wade Boggs slipped while putting on cowboy boots and Bob Stanley fell down stairs while taking out the garbage.
One of my favorites too was golfer Rutief Goosen, who was disqualified from the 2005 Nissan Open when he slept-in and missed his tee time following a Grey Goose Vodka promotion the prior night.
The number of conditioned, athletes having to miss competition due to an embarrassing, non-sports related injury is almost as long as the list of jokes that Blum (and the others) has to endure following the explanation of their “accidents”.
Some are self-induced but others were (as you’ll read) moments that these prideful stars would like to, shall we say, put behind them?
In the 1980 World Series, George Brett of the Kansas City Royals was removed from Game 2 because he was suffering from a bad case of hemorrhoids (as if this is such a thing as a GOOD case of hemorrhoids!). Brett saw a doctor and was back for Game 3 of the series (which his Royals would eventually lose to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games). After the 1980 AL MVP returned to play, he was famously quoted, “…my problems are all behind me.”
Hey, at least George didn’t thank his proctologist publicly, the way Ron Artest might have done
Lucky for George, and thanks to this episode that took place a few years later during a regular season game in 1983, Brett is fortunate to be remembered as the “Pine Tar Guy”, instead.
