It’s the first inning of a meaningless early-season baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Detroit Tigers. All-world outfielder and star Josh Hamilton, who dragged the Rangers to the World Series last year, is on third. After the third-baseman, Brandon Inge, and catcher Victor Martinez go pursue a pop foul, Hamilton has a clear path to home. Despite reservations, Hamilton listens to his coaches and makes a mad dash for home, where he promptly breaks his arm. Josh Hamilton was injured in last night’s game and will be out 6-8 weeks thanks to an idiot coach.
“It was a stupid play,” said Hamilton after the fact, putting the blame firmly on third-base coach Dave Anderson. “The whole time the ball was in the air, the coach was yelling, ‘Go, there’s no one at home,’ and I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to do this, something is going to happen.’ But I listened to my coach. It was way too aggressive. Maybe if they had both been closer to me, but they had a perfect angle to cut me off, and the only way to avoid a tag in that situation is to go headfirst.”
Obviously, the ultimate blame for this belongs to Hamilton, because he could have ignored the coach or slid feet-first. Still, a stupid play is a stupid play, and this was kind of a stupid play no matter who had the idea to try this. Still, it’s very early in the season and there’s plenty of time to make up for this lost time later in the season.
Tags: major league baseball, MLB, Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers, Josh Hamilton breaks his arm, Detroit Tigers, Josh Hamilton breaks his arm trying for home, Josh Hamilton breaks his arm sliding into home, Dave Anderson, injuries, sports, baseball, sports injuries, stupid sports injuries