Nobody wants to listen to somebody whine about the players on his favorite team getting injured, but I need to vent for a minute.
Since the beginning of the year, as my Giants attempt to defend their championship, they have had to put on the DL their everyday (or expected to be everyday) second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, center fielder, and right fielder as well as two starting pitchers (in the rotation), the closer, the set-up man, another reliever, the guy we picked up to replace our right fielder, our primary bat off the bench, three utility infielders, the guy we picked up as a stopgap replacement for our injured middle infielders, and our top first base prospect.
I am not exaggerating. Well, and I suppose I should mention that our closer didn’t actually miss the full 15 days, as he went on the DL during spring training, but all the rest of them missed at least two weeks (call it 10% of the season, if you want to compare it to other sports) and most of them much more. Chris Quick compiled a quick chart of the highlights which lists only the notable ones (and doesn’t include Carlos Beltran). I don’t remember ever following a team that had such a combination of quantity and severity of injuries.
Last year, everything seemed to go right, which is true of any pennant-winning team. This year, everything seems to go wrong. I suppose I oughtn’t complain.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
Well, it’s certainly sad to see a fine team go down because of injuries. You never want to see a player get hurt, of course, and when a team loses the opportunity to play to its potential, it seems a waste. I think you can complain.
And I won’t say anything about going through 18 straight losing seasons, because I still have hopes that the Pirates will make it back to .500 this year . . .