Larry Brown Sports

Nats outfielder Bryce Harper was left bloodied and with a cut above his left eye after smashing a bat against a wall in frustration on Friday night.

Harper, who went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in a win over the Reds, smashed his bat in frustration after making an out in the seventh. The bat apparently bounced off the wall in the tunnel and hit him in the face, leaving him with a nasty cut above his left eye.

Harper needed 10 stitches to close the cut. He was bandaged and continued to play in the game, though he was replaced by Xavier Nady in the 9th.

“It doesn’t hurt at all,” Harper said after the game. “I feel fine. I didn’t get light-headed at all or nothing. I feel good.”

Manger Davey Johnson said Harper could miss one or two games, but according to The Washington Post, Harper insisted he wanted to play.

“I think I’m good,” Harper said. “The doctor said I could play, so I’m going to play.”

Johnson defended his rookie saying that breaking a bat in frustration is nothing new for a ballplayer. At least it wasn’t a fire extinguisher.

Here’s another look at the bloody Harper, and an image of him batting with it bandaged:

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Knicks forward Amare Stoudemire committed the ultimate brain fart by cutting his hand punching a fire extinguisher in the locker room following his team’s Game 2 loss to the Heat on Monday night.

Stoudemire left the arena with his left hand bandaged and his left arm in a sling. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports says he did not get an X-ray, and the number of stitches he required to treat the wound is not known.

Above is a look at the type of fire extinguisher inside America Airlines Arena that Amare punched, according to Brian Windhorst.

Below is the trail of blood Amare left on the locker room floor:

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Rockies starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie will be forced to miss action after the club placed him on the 15-day disabled list following a bizarre bike accident on Friday.

Guthrie was on his way to the stadium when the chain on his Cannondale Hooligan bicycle became detached. The right-hander was thrown from the bike and jammed his throwing shoulder. An MRI later revealed no structural damage. Guthrie, an avid bike rider who completed a 30-mile ride earlier in the week, blamed the mishap on a “malfunction” with the bike he was riding:

I think a part had a malfunction but I have always been pleased with my Cannondale bikes. Hooligan is not my first. @ucf8459

— Jeremy Guthrie (@JGuthrie46) April 28, 2012

This isn’t the first weird injury to hit the Rockies pitching staff this year. Earlier this month Josh Outman had a stint on the 15-day DL after he strained an oblique while vomiting during a bout of food poisoning. At this rate, the Rockies should probably stay away from mayonnaise jars, too.

Photo credit: Benny Sieu-US PRESSWIRE

Because of food poisoning, the Rockies will be a bit short on bullpen help to begin the season this week. Yes, food poisoning is typically a 24-hour or 48-hour ordeal, but it can leave some lasting effects. As a result of a strained oblique from power puking, Rockies left-handed reliever Josh Outman has been placed on the 15-day disabled list to start the season.

“The food poisoning, there was a lot of vomiting and I really believe he strained his oblique,” Colorado manager Jim Tracy said Tuesday according to FoxSports.com. “He’s been much better over the last couple of days but he hasn’t been able to throw. We haven’t been able to get him to the mound. So we’re just going to err on the side of caution.”

Most of the weird injuries that we feature on LBS pertaining to baseball players are the result of clumsiness. Two great examples would be David Robertson falling down his stairs while carrying some empty boxes or David Price suffering neck spasms after toweling off improperly. But Outman’s excuse is pretty legit. Food poisoning can be pretty brutal. Some people are just stronger pukers than others. Nature of the beast.

Photo credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE

As expected, the bizarre injuries have been piling up all throughout spring training for various MLB teams. For the most part, the damage has been minor. Unfortunately for the Yankees and Joba Chamberlain, that was not the case on Thursday.

“Joba Chamberlain dislocated right ankle yesterday and had surgery last night,” Jack Curry of the YES Network wrote on Twitter Friday morning. “(Brian) Cashman called it a significant injury. Cashman said Joba injured himself while playing with his son. They were jumping around on a ‘trampoline’ of sorts.

“When Cashman was asked if Joba’s injury was career threatening, he said, ‘I’d’ like to say no. My heart and my gut tell me no,’” Curry continued. “Cashman said he feels for Joba on a personal level. He added that its a ‘massive’ loss for the team.”

Judging by the way Curry described Cashman’s tone, this is obviously a very significant injury. Curry added that it is not believed that Chamberlain’s son was injured, and that Cashman was noticeably “shaken” when delivering the news.

We joke about other strange injuries like this one and this one — which both happened over the past few weeks — but you hate to see something like this happen. Joba was reportedly making good progress in his return from Tommy John surgery, and the ankle injury is obviously going to be a major setback for him. With the way it sounds at the moment, it wouldn’t be surprising if Chamberlain misses all of 2012.

H/T Hardball Talk

Professional athletes tend to eat out a lot. Since they are constantly on the move and can usually afford takeout and restaurants on a regular basis, it makes perfect sense. What we don’t take into consideration is that eating out may also be a safety mechanism. As Vancouver Whitecaps striker Darren Mattocks proved over the weekend, cooking can be dangerous.

According to the CBC, Mattocks was admitted to a hospital on Sunday after suffering burns to his upper arm and right shoulder while cooking. How did this happen? Your guess is as good as ours.

“It was an unfortunate accident, but Darren is handling everything well and remains in good spirits,” Whitecap coach Martin Rennie said in a release. “We will have a better understanding on the recovery time and course of action later in the week, but we fully anticipate Darren to make a complete recovery in due time.”

Was it the door of the oven? Did a pot of hot water go flying through the air and hit his arm? I could see a burn on the hand or lower arm, but this one is a head-scratcher. At least when that dude from Werder Bremen hurt his knee playing with his dog the physicality of the injury made sense.

H/T Dirty Tackle

For the second straight day on Friday, the Phillies had to scratch outfielder Domonic Brown from their lineup with a neck injury. Neck injuries are fairly common, but keep in mind we’re talking about baseball and spring training. Naturally, there is an amusing story behind Brown’s injury.

“I really don’t know… I slept during the bus ride to Kissimmee, and then in (Wednesday’s) home game, in the third at-bat, it kind of got worse,” Brown said according to the Delaware County Times. “I don’t feel it until I really start swinging. I feel it right in here (points almost to throat) and in the back of my head. They don’t think it’s a nerve thing, so that’s good. I’m just taking it day by day.”

Brown said the injury is frustrating but “stuff like this happens.” We make fun, but we have all been there. I’ve woken up with a stiff neck many times after sleeping in my own bed, let alone taking a nap on the bus. In fact, he’s not even the first guy to injure himself while sleeping. At least he didn’t hurt himself toweling off or carrying empty boxes down the stairs.

The only advice I can give to Brown would be to drink plenty of coffee before bus rides from now on. Falling asleep sitting up is never a great idea.

H/T Hardball Talk

Here’s our promise to you from LBS: If the ridiculous injuries keep coming to close out the week, we’ll just keep posting them. Within the past 36 hours, we have had no choice but to flood our page with the bizarre misfortunes of athletes from various sports. To recap, we’ve had David Price injuring himself while toweling off, David Robertson spraining his foot by falling down the stairs, and a Colorado quarterback breaking his foot by walking. Werder Bremen striker Marko Arnautovic may top them all. According to Yahoo! Sports, Arnautovic tore a ligament in his knee on Thursday while playing with his dog.

“Marko has informed us of this incident,” Werder Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said. “This is frustrating as we are now with one option less (in attack) for the coming weeks.”

Team doctors estimate Arnautovic will miss at least six weeks. According to the story, he was outside playing with his dog when his foot got caught up in the grass and his knee twisted. I’d be lying if I said my dog had never knocked me on my can before while playing in the yard, but I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid serious injury. In other words, I feel Arnautovic’s pain. Except I don’t, if that makes sense.

Talk about one of those weeks.

Thanks to SI Hot Clicks for sharing the story with us

Did we say weird injuries only happen in baseball? If so, we didn’t mean it. They are certainly more common on or around the diamond, but Colorado quarterback Nick Hirschman reminded us earlier this week that they can happen in all sports. The sophomore was scheduled to challenge Texas transfer Connor Wood for the starting quarterback position next season, but Hirschman will now miss all of spring practices while his broken right foot heals. According to Dr. Saturday, he broke the foot by stepping on it wrong while walking.

It gets worse. The bone Hirschman broke in his right foot was the fifth metatarsal bone. Last August, he broke the same exact bone in his left foot and it required two surgeries to repair. Hirschman told the Boulder Daily Camera last week that he was close to feeling 100 percent for the first time from the injury to his left foot. He will now require surgery to repair the right foot.

I’m no doctor, but Hirschman must have some sort of disorder with this particular bone in his feet, right? I can’t imagine any situation in which a person would break a bone in their foot simply by walking if they were perfectly healthy — let alone the same bone they had already broken in their other foot.

At least the last bizarre college football injury we featured involved a moped and a box of pizza. For Hirschman, that’s just unbelievably bad luck. Here’s hoping he has a speedy recovery and can compete for the starting job again in 2013.

Baseball is back. You know how I know that? It’s not the spring training games or the warm weather here in the northeast. It’s not the B-team highlights on Sportscenter. I’m talking about the bizarre injuries. When it comes to the mystical world of weird injuries, no sport does it quite like baseball. The latest victim: Yankees reliever David Robertson.

According to the NY Post, Robertson injured his foot Wednesday night while carrying two empty boxes down a flight of stairs in his home. The right-hander missed a step on his way down and suffered a foot sprain during what he called a “clumsy” incident.

“I just misjudged one step and caught it funny and just kind of rolled under me,’’ he explained. “I can tell you right now, it’s the truth. My wife was like, ‘What are you doing down there?’ She saw me laying there, holding my foot. I was like, ‘I fell.’ She was like, ‘Are you serious?’”

Believe it or not, this is already our second significant weird injury of the season — and the season hasn’t even started yet. Earlier this week, David Price was suffering neck spasms as a result of the way he toweled himself off after the shower. For countless other unusual injuries from over the years, click here.

On a more serious note, Robertson was a rock as the Yankees set-up man last season. He is set to be reexamined by team doctors on Friday and the Yankees are reportedly “concerned” about the injury. If Robertson misses significant time and is unable to go at the start of the season, New York will look to Rafael Soriano to play a more important role in keeping the bullpen stabilized.