March 04, 2002

SF Giants' 2B Jeff Kent breaks his wrist at a self-serve car wash,: and the vicious cycle of athletes injuring themselves in stupid ways endures. What are your favorite stupid injury sports memories?

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 10:44 AM - 14 comments

My all-time favorite is still Glenallen Hill (see note) injuring himself while sleeping. It seems Hill, an arachnophobic, fell through a glass table while having a bad dream about spiders. I'm not sure anyone can beat that. On a more personal note, I bruised my tailbone celebrating one of the many second quarter touchdowns during Super Bowl XXII. I don't recall the specifics, but on one of Timmy Smith's runs or Doug Williams' bombs, I proceeded to try to swing from the top edge of a frame around a door in celebration and ended up on my keister. No breaks, but the pain was considerable for a week or two. Note: I didn't remember who the player was on this and the only successful search that I came up with said it was Hill. That didn't ring the bell, but the story was too good not to post and I wanted a name with it. If anyone finds a different source or remembers if it was/was not Hill, feel free to correct or confirm.

posted by 86 at 11:23 AM on March 04, 2002

One of the funniest was when Drew Pearson of the Cowboys injured himself spiking the ball, which I was reminded of this year when Bill Gramatica suffered the season-ending injury jumping in celebration after a field goal. The saddest freak injury was Robert Edwards tearing up his knee playing flag football in Hawaii during Pro Bowl week. He's still trying to come back two years later, but it could easily be career-ending.

posted by rcade at 11:49 AM on March 04, 2002

Two that stick out in my mind both involve Wade Boggs when he was with the Red Sox. Once he got hurt falling down while putting on cowboy books (or so he said). Another spring training his wife accidently drove over his leg when he fell out of a the jeep she was driving (or so he said).

posted by edw at 12:04 PM on March 04, 2002

I think this is the all time stupidest injury. I remember seeing a report that the machine only moved at 5 miles an hour. Here is the quintessential list of odd injuries. All of them occurred during the time of Cal Ripken's consecutive games streak.

posted by grum@work at 12:05 PM on March 04, 2002

my favorite injury would have to be ricky bones breaking his arm while watching tv in the marlins' clubhouse.

posted by moz at 01:15 PM on March 04, 2002

I always liked the one where Gus Frerotte, when he was with the Skins, headbutted the wall after scoring a touchdown, and knocking himself loopy for a few weeks.

posted by bcb2k2 at 01:16 PM on March 04, 2002

Probably not my favorite, but Rick Aguilera strained his wrist lifting his wife's luggage onto the team truck.

posted by hootch at 02:07 PM on March 04, 2002

where Gus Frerotte, when he was with the Skins, headbutted the wall after scoring a touchdown, and knocking himself loopy for a few weeks. That is easily one of my favs. It still makes me laugh. :)

posted by andrewraff at 02:20 PM on March 04, 2002

From the world of the near-ridiculous injuries... How Mark McLemore DIDN'T injure himself taking out a man nearly half his age, four inches taller and 100+ pounds heavier than him is beyond me. Guess he still has what it takes to play in the bigs, doesn't he? Best Buy managers, beware!

posted by rosey8810 at 03:12 PM on March 04, 2002

When he was with the Skins, idiot punter Matt Turk hurt himself playing basketball which resulted in him being traded to Miami. Ah, The Gus Headbutt. Classic.

posted by owillis at 03:21 PM on March 04, 2002

Though not as humorous as the examples here, I still get afeared of them bad juju injuries out of nowhere. I still want a clear explanation of how in hell Ed McCaffrey broke his leg. I keep getting this picture of the much fickle sports gods, saying "Thou hast displeased me, thus I must smite you", and *poof*, instant groin pull while jogging softly in warmup for a race (Carl Lewis did that).

posted by Wulfgar! at 04:01 PM on March 04, 2002

Ed McCaffrey broke his leg Season opener....opponent, former team, New York Giants...hmmm, maybe the football gods are Giants fans? I dunno. I can still remember when Bob Ojeda almost took one of his fingers off his pitching hand...while trimming the hedges at his house.

posted by PeteyStock at 05:01 PM on March 04, 2002

The Rick Aguilera one is a classic...how much crap do you think he took from the other guys on the team? I mean, not only did he hurt his wrist lifting luggage, but it was his wife's. Wow...what a prince of a guy. :P

posted by Stanford03 at 05:08 PM on March 04, 2002

I don't know if anyone is paying any attention to this thread anymore, but I thought I'd update it with the latest anyway. It's one thing to violate the terms of a contract, but Jeff Kent certainly didn't help himself by lying about it. I suppose he wanted to cover his butt knowing full well doing wheelies was idiotic, but then again, so is lying about it. It seems to me he has only compounded his problem. Now he has a sore wrist, no itegrity, less paychecks, less respect from fans and a pissed off organization.

posted by 86 at 12:12 PM on March 20, 2002

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