Toronto's 2007 DL already reads like a copy of The Bonfire of the Vanities, so it's not surprising to hear that yet another Blue Jay may be going under the knife.
Earlier today, Jays GM J.P. Ricciardi noted on the team's official site that he'd like to see Gustavo Chacin have his ailing left shoulder surgically repaired before the season's end. Chacin's been sidelined with shoulder problems since April.
"We're trying to find out if we need to have exploratory surgery in his shoulder," said Ricciardi, who added that the only throwing Chacin might do over the next few weeks would simply consist of light rehab work. "He's probably going down that road."
It's the latest twist in what's been a tough season for Chacin. So in an effort to lift the spirits, we're presenting this fabulous bit of Gustavo Magic: A commercial for Chacin Cologne Night at the Rogers Centre. It smells like... awesome.
I know this may come as a shocker to all of you, but Eric Gagne is hurting again. Gagne was finishing off the Ranger's 4-3 win over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday when Rangers officials sprinted to the mound following a Gagne pitch.
It's the second straight day that it's happened. On Saturday Gagne experience back spasms while pitching, but stayed in the game. Sunday, he limped off the field and Antinori Otsuka had to finish for him.
The team is calling it a strained right hip muscle, but Gagne says it's "my butt cheek."
Meanwhile, Ron Washington is too busy worrying about his entire team to care about Gagne's latest injury.
"We are a team," Washington said. "We can't be concerned with what we don't have, only with what we do have. If he can't pitch, we'll have to figure out a way to close out games. We'll deal with it."
Team doctors told Gagne that with heat and ice treatments, his butt should be at about 90 percent by the end of today. The other 10 percent is hair I guess.
While Gagne is unavailable, Otsuka will return to the closer role while Joaquin Benoit takes over the 8th inning setup role.
It's just a minor injury for Gagne, but frankly he gets a lot of minor injuries, and if he keeps getting them he may just become a giant pain in the ass for the Rangers. Not just himself. (Sorry, had to.)
The Wings announced that Todd Bertuzzi will not play in Game 2 vs. Calgary Sunday and is day-to-day. After practicing Saturday, Bertuzzi (concussion, strained neck) said he is optimistic he'll be ready for Game 3 in Calgary on Tuesday.
"I feel a lot better, whether a couple of days of practice would put me in a better position or not, we'll have to decide after,'' Bertuzzi said, before learning that he would not play. "It's not ultimately my decision. I tell them how I feel and they base their decision on that.''
Asked if he would at least be ready for Game 3, he said, "I'm hoping so. Obviously when you're winning you have to continue it. See what happens.''
So, even with the extra day of rest, the Wings won't be dressing Bertuzzi. Is this simply a precautionary measure, or do they not want to screw up the good chemistry they showed in their 4-1 victory?
Whatever the case, Bertuzzi needs to get into some game action soon if he wants to get used to the high pace of the playoffs. As good as Bertuzzi can be, his lack of defensive attention can screw up even the best of plans.
Former Champ Car champion Paul Tracy, 38, sustained a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae when he crashed during practice for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Saturday:
"I went head on into the wall and then the car jumped up in the air and then slammed back on the ground. I could tell something was wrong right away."
When I think broken back, I think career-ending injury. Apparently not.
Tracy, who ran a part-time Busch Series schedule last season, returned to the track--albeit doped up--and gave interviews after his emergency trip to the hospital! After doling out the standard "I'm disappointed for the team" BS, Tracy said he'll begin planning for his return next week:
"Now I'm just going to go home and rest for a couple of days and then, early next week, we'll start figuring out the best recovery options so I can get back in the car as soon as possible. I feel OK right now after all the medication that the doctors gave me, but I'm just sore and stiff and I just need some rest."
Ya think? How does one repair a broken back anyhow?
Tough break. He's currently third in the standings.
Todd "Grumpy Bear" Bertuzzi hasn't exactly been a primo pickup for the Detroit Red Wings thus far.
In just 8 games with the club, Bertuzzi had a modest 2 goals and 2 assists, as he was recovering from back surgery. Before the playoffs, Bertuzzi suffered a minor concussion and battled through more back pain.
Bertuzzi didn't play in Thursday's Game 1, which Detroit won 4-1, or in the regular-season finale because of a concussion and a neck injury. "He's been cleared medically," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "Now, he has to get cleared by our therapy people as far as being ready to play.
"If he's ready to go, he'll be in."
Bertuzzi skated briefly on his own Thursday and took part in an optional practice Friday. "It felt pretty good," he said. "We'll see how it feels tomorrow after another hard skate."
If Todd does return, he'll need to be a lot better than he's been in past playoffs.
In 24 career playoff games, Bertuzzi has just 6 goals and 8 assists. More importantly, Bertuzzi has been undisciplined, taking 82 minutes in penalties, and displaying his usual disdain for backchecking.
If the playoffs are a battle of attrition, the Canucks are not off to a good start ...
Poor Ryan Kesler is going to be out 4-5 weeks after suffering a broken finger and having pins inserted to fix it. He had just returned from a hip injury which caused him to miss more than half the season.
Alex Burrows went face-first into the boards during the first overtime on Wednesday and left the game with a concussion. Burrows says he has no concussion symptoms and wants to play in game two tonight.
Matt Cooke, who had tried a knee/hip check on Ladislav Nagy, suffered a pulled groin during the second period of game one. He is listed as day-to-day, and is unlikely for game two.
Brent Sopel, who missed game one due to back spasms, apparently suffered quite an embarrassing injury:
Brent Sopel had a fight with a cracker. And the cracker won.
The reason defenseman Brent Sopel was out of the lineup Wednesday was "He picked up a cracker yesterday [Tuesday] and his back blew out and just spasmed out," remarked Canucks coach Alain Vigneault.
That must have been some cracker! Sopel will skate this morning and see if his back is OK enough to dress for the Canucks tonight.
To compensate for the recent injuries, the Canucks have called up forwards Jannik Hansen and Nathan Smith from the Manitoba Moose of the AHL.
The Athletics shortstop that missed the end of last season with a lower back injury, hurt his back in Anaheim on Friday night. Crosby dove for a ball up the middle and landed hard before he flipped the ball to second base. He didn't come out of the game immediately, but after fouling out in his next at bat he was replaced at short.
After the game, Oakland manager Bob Geren downplayed Crosby's early departure, saying, "He felt tightness in his upper back but it was nowhere near (last year's) injury. It was one of those precautionary things."
Geren was unsure if the double-play ball contributed, but he saw Crosby look uncomfortable during his final at-bat and he asked him if he was OK when he came back to the dugout.
"I saw a look on his face like it was bothering him, and it was," Geren said.
Injuries are nothing new for Crosby. Ever since he won the Rookie of the Year in 2004, it seems he's spent more time on the disabled list than on the field. I already mentioned last season's back troubles, but he's also missed time the last few seasons due to a broken ankle and cracked ribs. The injuries have caused Crosby to miss 144 games since 2004.
The Athletics would go on to lose their game 5-2 as Vladimir Guerrero continued to kill any pitch he sees with another three-run blast. The loss dropped the Athletics to 2-3 on the season.
Quarterbacks with multiple fractures in their throwing hand usually take a seat and do that whole "healing" thing. On the surface it sounds like common sense. But then, common sense fell by the wayside long ago for last year's Arizona State football team.
The junior told ASUDevils.com that he fractured his right (throwing) hand in two places during practice before the Colorado game. And that he broke a bone on the ring finger of his left (non-throwing) hand when it was stepped on during the California game.
Both hands? I guess I should give him props for the incredibly tough/macho "look ma, no hands!" act. But then it explains away a lot of his ineffectiveness last year as he morphed from being the nation's most efficient passer to something resembling former UCLA quarterback Cory Paus.
Also: future wife take notice - the man needs no ring cause his ring finger kinda sorta doesn't work.
He also said of the injury against Cal, "It didn't feel good, but it's alright. I don't think I have a knuckle any more on my ring finger.
This comes directly from Baseball Musings, who heard on the radio that Schilling may have injured his arm in a car accident sometime this morning. From the site:
My daughter just heard on the radio that Curt Schilling broke his arm in a car accident in Kansas. I'm looking for a story now.
Update 8:10 AM: Still nothing on the web, but our local radio station says that Schilling stepped off a curb this morning and was grazed by the side-view mirror of an SUV. There's no official word from the Red Sox, but Curt either has a bone bruise or a fracture. Daisuke Matsuzaka might end up pitching the opener this afternoon. Stay tuned.
It could be nothing, but BM is as reputable as they come, so if the author didn't actually hear this he wouldn't be posting it. There's still no story on Google News about anything injury-related, but that doesn't mean much, as it's still pretty early in the morning, the one time of the day most newspaper reporters and especially editors are still sleeping.
Also, Schilling's blog makes no mention of any injury, but that doesn't exactly clear the air either.
We'll keep this updated throughout the day. If this is true, Scythehands Voxslayer is going to need some sort of mana boost if he plans on pitching in Kansas City today.
UPDATE 10:23: Two of our Boston-area FanHousers said they've been listening to WEEI all morning, and there's been no mention of it. April Fools joke, maybe?
UPDATE 11:00: David Pinto at Baseball Musings has added his own skeptical update: "Update 10:20 AM: It's been too long without confirmation of this story, so like a lot of people in the comments I'm becoming suspicious. I just wrote a friend from ESPN and he hasn't heard anything about this. I'm checking with others who might know something."
UPDATE 11:09: It's a hoax, a lame (and late, might I add) April Fool's Day joke. From Baseball Musings: "I just called the radio station that reported the story, and it was indeed a hoax. I'm very sorry to have been fooled by this, but being April 2nd, I assumed the jokes were over. My apologies to all. The DJ who pulled this wasn't on the air yesterday, so he decided to do it today. What a jerk."
A series of unforeseen circumstances have left the Yankees contemplating what once seemed unthinkable: starting Carl Pavano on Opening Day.
With Chien-Ming Wang headed for the disabled list, Andy Pettitte working through a sore back and Mike Mussina not on schedule, the best option could be the oft-injured right-hander.
Pavano is scheduled to pitch on Tuesday. That would set him up to face Tampa Bay on April 2 at Yankee Stadium. ... Pavano has thrown 12 1/3 innings this spring, allowing eight earned runs on 18 hits and seven walks. The numbers aren't impressive but the Yankees are happy he has stayed upright.
Yes, at this point, the New York Yankees are "happy" their pitchers are staying "upright." Which is faster to say: lowered expectations or George Steinbrenner?
I know this may come as a shocker to all of you, but Eric Gagne is hurting again. Gagne was finishing off the Ranger's 4-3 win over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday when Rangers officials sprinted to the mound 
Well, so much for 
Former Champ Car champion Paul Tracy, 38, sustained a compression fracture to his first lumbar vertebrae when he 
Todd "Grumpy Bear" Bertuzzi hasn't exactly been a primo pickup for the Detroit Red Wings thus far.
Wednesday's 
Bobby Crosby 
Quarterbacks with multiple fractures in their throwing hand usually take a seat and do that whole "healing" thing. On the surface it sounds like common sense. But then, common sense fell by the wayside long ago for last year's Arizona State football team.
This comes directly from 
Yesterday, 
