Francisco Liriano was set to sign a two-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates this offseason, but the deal nearly fell apart when the left-hander suffered a broken arm. Fortunately the injury is to Liriano’s right arm, so he ended up agreeing to a one-year deal with the Pirates with a team option for 2014.
What makes Liriano’s broken arm so bizarre are the stories that have come along with it. A few weeks ago, a Dominican newspaper reported that Liriano fractured his right arm after he slipped and fell in a bathroom. The 29-year-old said that is not what happened at all, but that doesn’t make the injury any less of a fluke.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Liriano said he broke his arm while intentionally slamming it into a door on Christmas Day in an attempt to scare his children, who were in the room next door. The left-hander said he felt little pain at first but decided he needed to go to the hospital after about 20 minutes.
“I was surprised when I got to the hospital and they told me it was broken,” he explained.
Liriano said that his agent, Greg Genske, couldn’t believe it when he told him what had happened and that he would not be able to make the trip to Pittsburgh for his physical with the Pirates. He also said that he never spoke with anyone in the Dominican Republic about the injury, so he has no idea where the report from El Caribe came from.
Believe it or not, Liriano is not the first athlete to suffer an injury while playing with his children. Remember when this Yankees reliever suffered an extremely serious injury while jumping on a trampoline with his son? Or how about this pitcher who broke his toes while playing with his children? Apparently there’s something about MLB pitchers playing with their kids that is incredibly dangerous.
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