Unfortunately, injuries are a part of sports. We all know this. We see most of them on TV.
We watched Kevin Pillar get drilled in the face, Joe Burrow tear his ACL, LeBron fall to the floor in the regular season, I could go on.
But there are other injuries that happen outside the lines of play. And, sometimes, they don’t involve an athletic activity at all.
Last night, Cleveland manager Terry Francona announced that his ballclub has put Zach Plesac on the injured list two days after his Sunday start. How did he injure himself off the diamond, you ask? By “rather aggressively ripping off his shirt,” Francona said. Apparently, while Plesac was trying to remove his clothing he caught his thumb on a chair in the locker room.
The next day, the pitcher received an X-ray where doctors concluded he had a non-displaced fracture of his right thumb.
The 26-year-old is supposed to meet with a hand specialist today.
You may have heard of Plesac last summer when he broke multiple MLB COVID-19 protocols, admitted it in an Instagram video while driving down the street, and blamed the media for mistreatment. I mean, who could forget that? Those shenanigans landed him at No. 10 on Deadspin’s 2020 Idiot of the Year awards.
Over the years, athletes have found bizarre ways to hurt themselves. Ya might as well add “aggressive shirt ripping” to a list that includes sneezing, guitar hero, fireworks, poached eggs, and more.
We saw another bizarre baseball injury early this month when Oakland A’s pitcher Jesús Luzardo broke his pinky playing video games. After an X-ray revealed the injury, he went on the 10-day DL.
Weeks later, Braves pitcher Huascar Ynoa punched a dugout bench and broke his hand. It’ll take months to recover from that one.
Don’t worry, Zach. We’re laughing with you.