Adrian Gonzalez missed Saturday’s Red Sox-Rays game after his back tightened when he bent over to greet a child at the mall on Friday. You can’t make this stuff up.
Gonzalez told reporters he was at a mall in Tampa next to the team’s hotel when he ran into a family with kids.
“I bent over to say ‘Hi,’ to one of the kids and when I came out of that, it locked up on me,” Gonzalez said, per CSN New England’s Sean McAdam. “I tried to get treatment, to go out there and move around, but it wasn’t feeling any better.”
Gonzalez said he told manager Bobby Valentine that he could play on Saturday, but Valentine and the trainers agreed there was no point to rush him. He returned on Sunday, going 2-for-4 in Boston’s 7-3 win over the Rays.
We know backs are extremely sensitive and that they can be “thrown out” at any time (even when reaching for pancakes at breakfast), but how bad does it sound to say that you’re missing a game after hurting yourself greeting kids? That’s pretty embarrassing.
If Gonzalez goes through our entire “weird injuries” archive, at least he’ll find out that he’s not alone. There are many more embarrassing tales in there.
