NL leading rookie out w/ Grocery Injury

[BB73]

This one goes into the silly injury hall of fame.

foxsports.com

Barmes sidelined with broken collarbone

DENVER (AP) - Clint Barmes went out to the grocery store and came home with a spot on the disabled list.


The Rockies' rookie sensation is expected to miss at least three months after breaking his left collarbone while carrying groceries up the stairs in his apartment building after a game Sunday night.

Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday.


"Obviously, accidents happen," said Barmes, a shortstop who is leading National League rookies in most offensive categories. "It's very unfortunate for this to happen the way it did."

Barmes said he was returning home with a bag of groceries cradled in his left arm and a sweat shirt in his right hand. He got tired of waiting for the elevator and decided to take the stairs to his fourth-floor apartment.

"I figured, I'm an athlete, I can walk up the stairs, it's not that big a deal," Barmes said in an interview Monday, his left arm hanging in a sling. "Obviously, if I had to go back, I would have waited, or at least been a bit more careful going up."

Barmes said when he felt himself slipping, he dropped the sweat shirt and tried to grab onto the railing. Next thing he knew, he had landed directly on his shoulder. Once in his apartment, he said it didn't feel too bad, but he moved it around, felt some cracking and knew something was wrong.

"It hit hard enough, I guess," he said. "It hit hard enough to make it hurt for about three months."

Barmes hovered around .400 and led the major leagues in batting average for about the first six weeks of the season. After a mild slump, he was still leading NL rookies in hitting (.329), runs (40), hits (74), doubles (16), home runs (8) and RBIs (34) heading into Monday's game.

He was definite rookie-of-the-year material, but now those hopes are gone due to what he called "the craziest thing that's happened to me, by far."

"I was stunned," teammate Brad Hawpe said. "Those are the freakiest of injuries. Clint is the kind of guy you expect to be in the lineup every day. Someone like that doesn't want to sit down."

Barmes' slip and fall adds to a long list of freak injuries sustained by baseball players over the years.

Some of the more memorable included:



<LI>Sammy Sosa spraining a ligament in his back after sneezing last season.



<LI>John Vander Wal tearing cartilage in his knee while shoveling snow soon after signing with the Reds last year.



<LI>Marty Cordova of the Orioles burning his face in a tanning salon in 2002.



<LI>Toronto's Glenallen Hill, in one of the strangest of them all, sustaining cuts and scrapes on his feet, knees and arm during a violent nightmare about spiders. Hill popped out of bed, bumped into a wall and scrambled up a staircase - all without waking up.


In Denver, Barmes will take a place aside former Broncos quarterback Brian Griese who, in a five-month span in 2002, sprained his ankle tripping over his dog and was knocked unconscious after tripping on a driveway at Terrell Davis' house.

"This is going to be hard sitting there watching when I know I could be out there helping the team," Barmes said. "I'm as disappointed as anyone else could be, if not a lot more."

The injury is devastating news for the Rockies, who entered Monday night's game against the Chicago White Sox on a four-game winning streak - their longest of the season - but also with the NL's worst record (19-36).

Barmes was the most promising rookie on a roster filled with young players and few dependable veterans outside of Todd Helton. Now, Barmes joins second-year second baseman Aaron Miles (rib cage) on the disabled list.

His wasn't the only unusual news on a most unusual day in the Colorado clubhouse.

Manager Clint Hurdle wasn't at the ballpark because his 2-year-old daughter, Madison, was readmitted to the hospital. Madison was in the hospital last month with seizures, forcing Hurdle to skip part of a road trip. Bench coach Jamie Quirk took Hurdle's place.

Also, the Rockies lost catcher Todd Greene, who injured his hamstring rounding third base Sunday against the Reds.

Greene was placed on the 15-day disabled list and replaced by Triple-A catcher Danny Ardoin.

Barmes, meanwhile, was placed on the 60-day disabled list and his spot on the roster was taken by infielder Tim Olson, also from Triple-A Colorado Springs. "We'll move on," Quirk said. "That's what minor league systems are for. We're not worried about that part of the Rockies right now. We hope he gets well."

 

[sears3820]

Another blow to my struggling fantasy team. :(

 

[LoKyBuckeye]

# Toronto's Glenallen Hill, in one of the strangest of them all, sustaining cuts and scrapes on his feet, knees and arm during a violent nightmare about spiders. Hill popped out of bed, bumped into a wall and scrambled up a staircase - all without waking up.

I haven't heard that one before.

At least make something up... you got hurt carrying groceries??? Say you fell in the dugout or something.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

This injury is depressing for us Rockies fans. Barmes was having an outstanding rookie season. :(

 

[BB73]

New version of the injury. Apparently he didn't want to admit to the deer meat because it was tied to ATV use, and he didn't want a KW-II situation.

si.com
Oh deer

Barmes revises story on how he broke collarbone


DENVER (AP) -- Colorado Rockies rookie shortstop Clint Barmes says he was lugging a package of deer meat he got from teammate Todd Helton, and not a bag of groceries, when he fell and broke his collarbone.

"I just didn't think it was right to bring Todd Helton into something like this," Barmes said Wednesday, explaining why he gave the different version when he first recounted the strange fall that took him out of action for at least two months.
Barmes, who was leading National League rookies in most offensive categories, underwent successful surgery to repair the break in his left collarbone. Team doctors inserted a titanium plate and nine screws to help the bone heal.

Helton said he and Barmes had ridden four-wheel all-terrain vehicles at Helton's ranch near Greeley on Sunday after the Rockies beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-6. Helton said the ATV ride had nothing to do with the injury.

"I cannot say it strongly enough -- he did not get hurt riding an ATV," Helton said. "I was there. He never left my eyesight the entire time."

Helton said he, Barmes and rookie teammate Brad Hawpe were riding about 5 mph.

Afterward, he treated them to a dinner that included deer meat, and Barmes liked it so much that Helton gave him a package.

Nothing in Barmes' contract, which is just $1,000 above the major league minimum, specifically prohibits him from riding an ATV.

Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd said he doesn't doubt Barmes' explanation that it was a fall, and not the ATV ride, that caused the injury.

"This is one of the greatest-character kids we've ever had come through this organization," O'Dowd said. "I have no reason to doubt him. It's an unfortunate injury for both him and for us, but he'll get through this."

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[sandgk]

SI Silly Injury Article

Anybody else catch the recent Rushin column in SI recounting silly injuries? Great piece of writing and it contained the priceless comment that Baseball players are more often than not the one's getting bone-headed or just plain wierd injuries.

There is a link -- but SI Extra subscription is needed, so here is the gist of the column.

Rockies shortstop Clint Barmes broke his collarbone last week falling on the stairs with an armload of venison, calling to mind another awkward hunk of deer meat, former Tigers slugger Rob Deer, who in 1992 broke his wrist striking out.

Shortly before Barmes tripped, Cubs lefty Mike Remlinger broke his pinkie while reclining in a clubhouse chair. In that same clubhouse, 20 years earlier, Steve Trout bruised his shoulder when he fell off a stationary bike.

<!--startclickprintexclude--><!--endclickprintexclude--> Athletes in every sport incur ridiculous injuries. Golfer Sam Torrance cracked his sternum while attacking a potted plant that he mistook, while sleepwalking in his darkened hotel room, for an intruder. Maple Leafs goalie Glenn Healy required 10 stitches to repair the hand he gashed trying to repair a vintage bagpipe. Manchester United keeper Alex Stepney dislocated his jaw while chewing out teammates, adding injury to insult.

But if Stepney really wanted to lacerate his teammates' buttocks, he should have played baseball. In 1982 Kirk Gibson pulled the locker stool away from Tigers righthander Dave Rozema, who fell on the glass bottle of cough syrup in his back pocket, knocking him out of the rotation. "The beauty of baseball," former Detroit manager Sparky Anderson said last week, "is you don't need to use this." And he slowly tapped at his temple.

When it comes to exotic mutilation, baseball stands head and shoulders above the rest. Head? Hall of Famer Bill Dickey knocked himself out while leaping in a low-ceilinged dugout to celebrate a Yankees pennant. Shoulders? Righty Steve Sparks dislocated one of his while trying to tear the Yellow Pages in half.

Baseball injuries, like baseball players, run hot and cold. Outfielder Marty Cordova burned his face after falling asleep in a tanning bed. Rickey Henderson fell asleep with an ice pack on his ankle and was frostbitten in August. The litany of peculiar baseball ailments could fill another volume of Gray's Anatomy (if that Gray were Pete Gray, the St. Louis Brown who lost his right arm in childhood after falling off a truck).

Some so-called "baseball" injuries could happen to anyone. Who among us hasn't broken a rib while vomiting up an in-flight meal, as Tom Glavine did on a plane in 1992? But others are occupational hazards specific to the sport, as when outfielder Terry Harper separated his shoulder in the on-deck circle while windmilling a teammate home from third base.

Baseball injuries are so full of irony (Tony Gwynn fractured his middle finger while closing his Porsche door on the way to the bank) and ironing (John Smoltz burned his chest while pressing a shirt he was already wearing) that the medical journals ought to give them some ink (righthander Jeff Juden, infected tattoo).

Summer is a Benihana chef, an endless flash of dangerous blades. Outfielder Oddibe McDowell cut his hand buttering a dinner roll. Lefthander Curt Simmons sliced off a toe while mowing his lawn. And three summers ago righthander Adam Eaton stabbed himself in the stomach with a knife. He was not committing hara-kiri, or even Harry Caray, but was trying to open the vexing shrink-wrap on a DVD.

Long before the Red Sox' motto was Cowboy Up, Wade Boggs bruised his ribs while pulling on cowboy boots (and crashing into a hotel couch). But then the Red Sox have a long history of biting themselves in the ass, as Boston rookie righthander Clarence Blethen did in 1923 while sliding into second base with his false teeth in his back pocket.

It just proves that in baseball anything can be injurious. It could be something you ate (Kevin Mitchell required dental surgery after biting into an overheated microwaved doughnut). Or it could be something that ate you (like the famous automated tarp-roller that devoured Vince Coleman before a 1985 National League playoff game).

To stay healthy as a player, you'd do well to remember your mother's advice: Look both ways before crossing the street (except that catcher Brent Mayne wrenched his back doing just that in 2002). Keep your nose clean (but only your nose: Outfielder Henry Cotto punctured an eardrum while prospecting for wax with a Q-tip). And when all else fails, simply stay in bed (though A's righty Rich Harden once strained his shoulder reaching for the snooze button).

The rest of us should steer clear of anyone in double-knits. Orioles righty Dennis Martinez hurt his arm heaving luggage onto the team bus, an injury The Baltimore Sun listed as Samsonitis. Trying to knock dirt from his spikes with his bat, Hall of Famer Lefty Gomez hit his ankle instead and had to be carried from the field. Two decades ago Dodgers third base coach Joe Amalfitano broke his thumb while congratulating Steve Sax as the latter rounded third base on a home run trot.

But that wasn't the most dangerous injury incurred at third base. As Giants manager in 1992, Roger Craig cut the back of his right hand when he snagged it on the hook of his wife's bra.

Issue date: June 20 , 2005

 

[MolGenBuckeye]

Hmm...Rob Deer breaking his wrist striking out? I'm no doctor, but that sounds like a classic repetitive stress injury to me.