Robert Crouch is the first Herts player who finds himself on the dreaded DL in 2008. For those who are unfamiliar with the abbreviation “DL”, it stands for Disabled List and baseball players are placed on it when they have sustained an injury.
In a freakish incident during the club’s indoor training session a basketball headed in Crouch’s direction glanced off the little finger of his right hand. Medical examinations revealed that Crouch has a fractured finger and the bone will need to be pinned together.
The good news is that the operation has been successful and the stitches will be removed later this week. Crouch will be out of action for another four weeks after which he is expected to get right back into the swing of things with the rest of the Herts Baseball squad. The whole club wishes him a speedy recovery in time for the Spring training games.
Herts Baseball Newswire will be providing frequent DL updates throughout the season and the hope is that the reports will not be so frequent.
Here are some other milestones in the Herts DL archives.
2007 – Robert Crouch taking a ball on the nose in pre-game warm-up.
2006 – Kimiyoshi Saionji fractured jaw in two places following a heroic play to make the out at first base which resulted in a collision with a
2006 – Larry Martillo dislocated little finger trying to field a pop-fly.
2004 – Short Stop Geoff Hare staying fearlessly behind a fizzing groundball which took a wild hop and headed straight for Hare’s cheek bone. Thankfully no fracture, just a massive cut under the eye. If I remember correctly, Geoff got an assist on that play as the ball bounced off his cheekbone straight into the glove of the second baseman for a force-out at second base.
2003 – Pitcher Paul Raybould bravely took a line drive in the stomach to knock the ball down and complete the out at first. Later examination showed a funny bruise on his tummy which had a strange resemblance to Leonid Brezhnev. To deal with the heavy bruising Raybould utilized a mysterious gel substance which his wife uses on jump-horses who sustain heavy bruising on their legs. Raybould was very pleased with the results.
Note: For readers who are considering giving baseball a try, please note that injuries are much rarer in baseball compared to other sports such as football and it is a very enjoyable sport indeed.