Kendry Morales's Brittle Leg Teaches Us A Valuable Lesson About...Something

Someone in that Angels dugout is kicking themselves for not just simply wishing Morales "good luck" before coming to the plate in the tenth, instead of saying "break a leg." Ugh, that was terrible. I apologize.

Actually, I don't. A goofy injury like this one calls for goofy humor. You know, like saying that the Morales of the story is not to count your walkoffs before you walk off. You've got to laugh, because I don't know how else you can deal with something this bizarre. One minute, Morales is on top of the world. The next, bam, done for the year.

Now, before anyone goes there, this is just plain bad luck. It's not irony. Irony is using words that mean the opposite of what is literally said. Like if I said, "athletes should stop celebrating." That would be irony.

Oh wait! Someone totally says athletes are going to stop celebrating now! Which is just as reactionary as it is ludicrous, when you think of all the other athletes that have gotten hurt celebrating, and how that didn't stop anyone. Here's a comprehensive list of celebration-induced injuries, which isn't complete as it omits Keith Hernandez's deviated septum.

Where does this one rank with the best of the best? Gus Frerotte's headbutt makes the list because it was a perfect confluence of stupid and premature — he was celebrating the Redskins' only touchdown of the game, in the third quarter, on a team that was only 6-5. And Bill Gramatica's because he was celebrating a 3-0 score in the first quarter, he's a foreign kicker (schadenfreude!), and because it essentially ended his career.

But Morales might top them all. It had drama: it was the last play of the game. It had pathos: he's the best player on a struggling team. Most importantly, it had a good visual: Morales writhing in pain at the bottom of a pile, as his oblivious teammates celebrate around and above him.

We all feel bad for Morales, and the Angels, and their fans. It's really not fair that a pro athlete in peak physical condition gets felled for so long doing something so innocuous. But, c'mon: it's more than a little funny that the dude broke his leg jumping on home goddamn plate.