Here goes nothing (Update)

March 24, 2012

Getting ready for my team’s first softball practice of the season. I’ve been dealing with what the doctors call a strained abdominal muscle since October and this will be the real first. Although I have been going to the gym three times a week for the past couple, I don’t have high hopes. If I were a big leaguer, I’d be getting white-glove treatment and be getting paid while I recoup.

At least I’m not Joba Chamberlain. From today’s New York Times:

[O]n Thursday afternoon, Chamberlain was derailed again, but this time while simply trying to be a good father to his 5-year-old son. While jumping with him on trampolines at a children’s play facility in Tampa, Chamberlain suffered a potentially devastating ankle injury that may keep him from pitching in a Yankees uniform again.

The 26-year-old Chamberlain, once viewed as the heir apparent to Mariano Rivera, sustained an open dislocation of his right ankle, with the bone protruding through the skin and causing loss of blood, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said.

In the first game with my current team, I fielded an errant throw from our third baseman on a double play attempt. The ball bent the pointer finger on my throwing hand at a lateral 45 degree angle. Fortunately (?) it was so cold that night I didn’t feel any pain and in a somewhat numbed state just push it back into place. I could play the field for the next few games, but there was no lasting damage. On the first day of practice with a new team several years ago, I sustained what turned out to be a torn soleus (calf) muscle. But I didn’t know it at the time and managed to trot out seven hits in eight at bats for a scrimmage doubleheader. A couple of seasons later I was hit on the hand by a line drive while playing third base, breaking my pinky in three places. 16 years later I still can;t play the guitar properly (which is why I finally bought a ukulele).

Don’t cry for me, Argentina. In the grand scale of things, it’s probably not that big a deal. But being athletic is part of my identity and I don’t know what I’ll do if I have to miss a season at my age.

* * *

Update: Happy to report no lingering problems other than the usual aches and pains from the first day out. Yippee.

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