Unlike the NFL where massive collisions are usually the cause of player injuries, Major League Baseball players are known for acquiring goofy and unusual injuries that can sideline them for extended periods.
Baseball players have been injured putting on and taking off their socks. Extended periods of flicking sunflower seeds led to a pitcher injuring his elbow. Both celebrations and brawls have sent players to the Disabled List. Even sneezes have been cause for extended wincing. The list is quite long.
Fortunately for St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday, his recent weird moment only cost him a couple of innings of action instead of a few weeks of games. Holliday left Monday night’s loss to the financially-strapped Dodgers in the top of the eighth inning. He came off the field in apparent discomfort, tugging at his ear. The team’s trainer met him before he got to the dugout and learned that a moth had flown into the Cardinal outfielder’s ear. Thankfully it wasn’t as large a moth as the one in the picture above.
The trainer took him into a dark room, trying to lure the moth back to the light, but eventually had to basically tweeze the moth out of the ear canal. It was alive when it departed Holliday’s noggin, but by the next day it was being stored in a plastic bag at his locker in the St. Louis clubhouse.
The Cardinal slugger kept a good attitude according to St. Louis Today, “It died from an overflow of wisdom that he got in my head, ” Holliday said, adding that he had no role in the delicate insect’s death.”
And of course in addition to moths, Cardinal fans still hate the Cubs.
It’s not the first insect/baseball encounter. The MLB playoffs have been disrupted by swarms of midges. Games have been delayed by bees, and the mayflies have also impacted games.
