Baseball players must be made of paper mache because they keep getting hurt in the strangest of ways. We’ve already seen our share of injuries that occurred as a result of celebrations gone wrong, but now we can add to our growing list of weird sports injuries. For some reason, the common thread is that three of the four strange injuries happened to pitchers. Maybe they’re just soft as we’ve pointed out before.
The first strange injury occurred last week when Russell Branyan hurt his toe. How did it happen? A coffee table landed on it and cut his foot. Or something like that. Thanks to SI Hot Clicks for the heads up on that injury.
The next weird sports injury was probably the most embarrassing. Padres young stud pitcher Mat Latos landed on the 15-day disabled list after straining his side holding back a sneeze. No joke. He says he learned the lesson that he should just let it fly next time. We sure hope he does. Somewhere Sammy Sosa is saying “I told ya.”
The Mets had to push up the start of Hisanori Takahashi up from Monday to Saturday because Mike Pelfrey wasn’t ready to pitch on his scheduled night. Pelfrey got a stiff neck falling asleep on the flight from Wichita to San Francisco following the All-Star break. I’m sure many of us can relate to Pelfrey’s plight, I just don’t know too many pitchers who had to miss a start as a result, but it’s understandable.
Lastly, the most high profile strange injury comes from Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett. Burnett cut his palms on some plastic lineup card holders after slamming the clubhouse doors out of frustration. He initially lied about the injury but later fessed up and apologized to his teammates.
Why does it always seem to be the pitchers?
Sources:
Sneeze lands Latos on disabled list [MLB.com]
New York Mets will start Hisanori Takahashi Saturday night due to Mike Pelfrey’s neck stiffness [New York Daily News]
Burnett apologizes to team for outburst [AP/FOX Sports]
