Monday, June 1, 2009

The DL

I played slo-pitch softball today and landed on the DL. No, I didn't tear my ACL with an ill-advised slide into 3rd. I saw that once. Not good. No, this is a weird one. I misjudged a flyball--hey, I'm out of practice. I was in left, it was a high pop-up and I missed it with my glove hand. I had my right up, too, and the ball landed on the tips of my fingers, jamming them, and I botched it. I grabbed the stray ball and tossed it back to the infield--then I noticed my hand was bleeding. I had a gash between my right middle and right ring fingers that needed five stitches! I must have tried to catch the ball bare-handed while giving Spock a Vulcan salute. Live long and prosper, bra. It's as if my hand was being drawn and quartered for a bit before they said "sorry, wrong fellow" and let me go. I thought at first the seams of the ball had torn off some skin, but my hand was actually split open. The gash was about an inch long with an impressive pulpy depth, and curved from the palm side to the back in a rough crescent. I'm typing this with my left. The right doesn't hurt much, just a bit sore, but I'm down to a simple pincer grip at best for a few days. That's enough about me. I'm dying of thirst and I need a fookin' beer.

OPEN INJURY THREAD: tell us your tale.

8 comments:

Brother Bob said...

I had a similar injury back in the 8th grade. A fly ball went through my fingers and ripped the web of my right pinky finger. I had to go get stitches too. It's been about 30 years since I even tried to play softball.
I like your little link at the end, to your other great love. (It would be in poor taste to blog about your wife.)

JC Parsons said...

Gee, who would have thought that people would be reluctant to share embarassing tales of athletic failure??? I would but....ummm, I can't think of one.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Then there's my rotator cuff injury from a bad fall while skiing. And my back injury from pitching over the handlebars of my mountain bike. And my arthroscopy on my right knee because, uh, because, uh, I just wore it out. Other than that I'm generally pretty healthy. Oh yeah, then there was the time I hyper-extended my left knee climbing a mountain. Then there was the time I got attacked by bees--hey, that was also during a SB game! Then there was the time I nearly got my jaw broken while performing mixed-martial arts on the streets of Oakland. Oh, that's right, MMA wasn't a sport then, it was still called "attempting futilely to fend off bullies."

Like I said, I'm usually pretty healthy.

Zo said...

I got a bruised spleen from being hit in the back by a pitch during little league. Stayed a couple days in the hospital to make sure it wasn't a rupture. It was on the last day of school. I had to not swim or do much strenuous fun stuff all summer. I could still flip baseball cards, though. The story goes that my dad had taken out a school insurance policy that went until midnight on the last day of school and had some other supplemental insurance that kicked in as soon as school let out, so he made money on the deal. I also have a floating chip in the knuckle of my thumb from college softball. Funny, in all those unsupervised pick-up games of hardball in my youth I never injured anything except I still jerk my head at a hard smash that hops right in front of me. I've always been a rangey, high average, low power outfielder. Of course, if you don't relate your tales of athletic failures, others will probably do it for you.

Zo said...

That last comment was a hint for you to jump in, Bob.

Brother Bob said...

See comment #1.
Duh.

Brother Bob said...

I got more though.
I dislocated my left patella in high school PE doing burpees and many years later re-dislocated it bowling.
Once in high school PE softball we were using the equipment bag as 3rd base and while rounding "the bag" at full speed I sprained the shit out of my right ankle and was in a cast for a month. I shoulda sued.

Zo said...

I meant about your younger brother.