Tellez is latest in a line of strange Brewers injuries

This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat publication. To learn the total publication, click here. And subscribe to get it frequently in your inbox.

Listed below are among the most memorable:

Robin and the dust bike
Just a few weeks earlier than the beginning of Spring Coaching in 1978, Robin Yount and reliever Bob McClure took their households to trip amidst the sand dunes of San Luis Obispo, Calif. Yount hopped on his dust bike in tennis footwear for a warmup experience and flew off the again facet of a dune, touchdown so exhausting that his left foot wrapped across the foot peg and tore ligaments.

When he acquired to Arizona, “I needed to come to that realization that I can’t play,” Yount stated. “And I don’t know what to do. I believe Timmy Johnson was within the locker proper subsequent to me, and he knew my foot was hurting. I stated, ‘God, if I hold having this, I may need to go play golf or one thing.’”

Saying that was a mistake. When Yount disappeared for a couple of days, the story unfold within the press that Yount was threatening to go play skilled golf until he acquired what he needed in his new contract.

In actuality, he was holed up in a resort, terrified.

The story truly has a contented ending. The revelation Yount was injured prompted the Brewers to swiftly rescind the non-obligatory task to the Minor Leagues of one other first-round decide, who would fill in for Yount at shortstop to open the 1978 season.

Save for a few rehab assignments, Paul Molitor by no means noticed the Minor Leagues once more.

Ernest Riles and the damaged glass
In January 1987, the rising infielder severed tendons in his proper index finger whereas choosing up damaged glass in his kitchen at dwelling. He didn’t make it again to the Majors till late June.

Steve Sparks and the phonebook
In 1994 Spring Coaching, common supervisor Sal Bando and supervisor Phil Garner held a team-building train designed to convey gamers nearer collectively by watching grown males partake in odd, unbelievable habits.

Enter Radical Actuality, a motivational group that did issues like blow up sizzling water bottles and bend bars with their enamel.

“They usually tore these phonebooks…” recalled Sparks, the previous Brewers reliever.

The following day, Sparks determined to present it a attempt. He began off by dishonest, tearing eight pages at a time till he had constructed up sufficient to make the remainder of the telephone ebook simpler to tear in a single movement. Or so he thought.

Sparks by no means went on the injured listing, however the antics did get him shipped out to the Minor Leagues. He needed to wait one other year-and-a-half to get his first large league callup.

Curtis Leskanic and the… nicely, you already know
“No must panic,” they stated when Leskanic took the mound throughout his stint as Brewers nearer, however an unlucky medical illness was a real trigger for concern in 2000. Leskanic fearful he had most cancers when he developed extreme swelling in an space wholesome younger males don’t wish to get extreme swelling. As an alternative, he was struggling an an infection that cleared up with antibiotics and a 17-day keep on the injured listing.

Richie Sexson and the cap
Sexson strained his neck adjusting his cap in the course of the Brewers’ annual picture day at first of Spring Coaching in 2003. In line with one account, it was a “tiny cap,” no matter meaning. The illness might have value Sexson a few days, however he was nicely sufficient in the course of the common season to play all 162 video games, hitting 45 homers with 124 RBIs.

Matt Wise and the salad tongs
Smart, now the Angels bullpen coach, was a Brewers reliever with a terrific changeup that was rendered ineffective after he minimize the center finger on his pitching hand in Kansas Metropolis in June 2006. Smart thought he was doing one thing wholesome when he determined to make a salad. As an alternative, he missed a couple of days of labor.

The wiry Smart stored his humorousness in regards to the state of affairs.

“No less than it was one thing in my weight class,” he stated a couple of days later.

Zack Greinke and the hardwood
Greinke’s mates warned him towards taking part in basketball, however he didn’t hear. After being traded to the Brewers for the 2011 season, the right-hander cracked a rib when he went up for a rebound and fell to the hardwood throughout a pick-up sport within the first week of Spring Coaching.

“I’ve been doing this for a pair years now, and individuals are at all times saying, ‘You’re going to get harm,’” Greinke stated. “It lastly caught as much as me.”

That season featured two odd accidents for beginning pitchers. In August, left-hander Chris Narveson missed a few begins with a deep minimize on his left thumb suffered whereas utilizing scissors to repair the leather-based lacing on his glove.

Jonathan Lucroy and the suitcase
Teammates had been left shaking their heads as phrase unfold within the guests’ clubhouse at Dodger Stadium in Could 2012 that their catcher had damaged his proper hand in a weird resort room accident. In line with Lucroy, he was reaching underneath his resort room mattress for a misplaced sock when his spouse shifted a suitcase, which fell on her husband’s hand.

“I attempted to ‘put on it’ right this moment, to see if I might swing with it,” a despondent Lucroy stated upon arriving on the ballpark. “I did not need to say something as a result of I do not like not taking part in. I need to play. However I went down and took some swings and it did not really feel good, so I needed to spill it.”

Lucroy wound up needing surgical procedure and missed two months.

Okay-Rod and the cactus
Whereas chasing considered one of his youngsters within the yard of a Spring Coaching rental dwelling in 2014, Francis Rodriguez stepped barefoot on a cactus. Each couple of weeks that season, a backbone would work its approach to the floor and be pulled free.

“I do not know when you guys have stepped on one, however you understand how little among the [spines] are?” supervisor Ron Roenicke requested reporters. “They usually’re in there for some time.”

Scooter and the bathe caddy
Scooter Gennett was showering at PNC Park after an April 2015 sport towards the Pirates when he sliced open a knuckle on his left hand. Gennett wanted 5 stitches to shut the wound however missed solely two weeks.

“It was undoubtedly a freakish factor,” Gennett stated. “I attempted to seize some physique wash, like I’d usually seize physique wash, and scraped it on the underside [of a metal rack]. I did not really feel something then it began bleeding all over the place. At a sure angle, these are sharp. I discovered the fitting angle and sliced it open.”

Will Smith and the shoe
Smith, Milwaukee’s co-closer on the time, returned to the clubhouse after pitching in a Minor League sport throughout 2016 Spring Coaching and tried to take off his proper shoe whereas nonetheless standing. The shoe didn’t budge, however Smith’s knee did. He suffered a torn lateral collateral ligament and didn’t pitch for the Brewers till June.

“I used to be standing on one leg, attempting to take the shoe off and I pulled exhausting and it stayed on. My knee simply went up and popped,” stated Smith. “It sucks.”

Devin Williams and the fitting hook
Williams was definitely not the primary pitcher to lose his cool and undergo a damaged hand in consequence, however what made his injury so odd was the timing. Williams suffered his “boxer’s fracture,” because it’s aptly referred to as, the night time the Brewers clinched the NL Central with a win over the Mets at American Household Subject in 2021.

As famously depicted within the movie “Bull Durham,” don’t they train pitchers to punch with the alternative hand?

“They do,” teammate Brandon Woodruff stated. “However once you get ticked off and also you’re seeing purple, you simply don’t assume. If you happen to’re going to do something in our job, particularly as a pitcher, do it with you off-hand. However I really feel for Devin. That’s powerful.”