It's no secret that my favorite season of sports is fall, when the beefy football players come out to pass and kick around the pigskin.
I don't terribly mind the winter season, because I love hockey and find basketball mildly interesting. As the snow melts, (hopefully this will be the last time we see it melt for a while) we head into the season of spring, which is dominated by professional baseball. Despite the upcoming National Hockey League (NHL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs, spring means baseball for many sports fans.
As the season opens, two pivotal players have found themselves injured. The N.Y. Yankees lost Derek Jeter in the season opener against Toronto, when he collided into Toronto catcher Ken Huckaby. Jeter is expected to be out for a minimum of six weeks, but he is currently seeking a second opinion.
For his third straight year, Ken Griffey Jr. has injured himself before the first road trip of the season. He separated his shoulder when he was making a diving catch in a 9-7 loss against the Chicago Cubs.
Griffey somehow found it possible to hit the bone completely out of its socket. Poor Griffey, after 11 years and only one injury with the Seattle Mariners, he somehow has gotten injured three times with the Cincinnati Reds.
I'm not a fan of baseball. I can generally stand it when I actually attend the games, but not on television. When I watch baseball on television ... well, I don't really watch it. It puts me to sleep pretty fast.
But I guess the real point of this commentary is I don't understand how you can get injured playing baseball. Hockey players have to avoid getting hit by sticks and skates, boxers repeatedly hit each other in the face, football players violently tackle each other, rugby players tackle each other without pads, but I don't see what baseball players collide into that causes injuries.
I understand that baseball is a very athleticly rigorous sport and I'm not challenging the talent that is in baseball - talent I do not possess - but I honestly don't understand how they get hurt. Can anyone explain this to me?
