We've Seen Worse.

These aren't even close to the weirdest injuries to come along

May 07, 2026

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A pitcher for the Chicago Cubs woke up Wednesday morning as a healthy player, and within a couple of hours — long before game time — he’d already learned that he had torn meniscus in his left knee that will require surgery, likely costing him months of the season.

His injury: Playing with the kids.

I mean — it happens. Matthew Boyd and his 35-year-old baseball body might not love hearing that, but it sure does happen. By his own account, Boyd was doing nothing more dangerous than getting on the floor to play with the tots. “Kind of innocent,” said his manager, the Cubs’ Craig Counsell.

A wholesome family injury. You don’t get those every day.

You do, however, get bizarre injuries, sometimes inexplicable ones. The announcement of Boyd’s bad news came exactly one day after Houston’s Carlos Correa stepped into a pre-game batting cage session, took one stride forward with his left foot during a swing, and heard a pop.

Torn tendon in the ankle. Surgery planned. Season over.

"It just completely snapped on me, and then I fell to the ground," Correa told reporters in Houston. "I couldn't put weight on it. ... Right away, I knew something was wrong."

He just didn’t know why something was wrong, because — well, because there’s no why. A fully ruptured tendon by taking one step toward a swing? Pull the other one.

These are serious injuries that seriously affect both the players and their teams, and they are not taken lightly. On the other hand, they’re odd enough to warrant real wonderment — and nowhere near bizarre enough to crack this list.

Aaron Gordon’s Untrained Dog. The Denver Nuggets’ forward missed about a week in 2023 after getting bitten on his shooting hand — by his own excitable four-year-old Rottweiler. “Because we're on the road so much, my dad's taking care of him, so I can't really train him how I need him to be,” Gordon explained. This was Christmastime, and Gordon acknowledged he might’ve had a little too much eggnog before roughhousing with the Rott (a genuinely bad idea).

Bill Gramatica’s Torn Celebration. Gramatica, then a kicker with the Arizona Cardinals, jumped up in triumph after booting a field goal in the first quarter of a game against the New York Giants in 2001. He landed awkwardly, tore his ACL, and played only parts of three more NFL seasons in his career. (Side note: After tearing the knee ligament, Gramatica stayed in the game against the Giants and kicked another field goal and an extra point.)

Sammy Sosa, Just Because. While sitting on a chair at his locker and chatting with reporters in 2004, Sosa, then 35 years old, sneezed too hard, sprained a ligament in his back and went on the 15-day disabled list. “Would’ve been better if I’d have run into a wall or gotten into a fight or something,” Sosa said. Other baseball players with sneeze-related DL stints: Marc Valdes (1995), Russ Springer (1997), Goose Gossage (1985).

Glenallen Hill’s Arachnophobia. A rookie with the Blue Jays in 1990, Hill injured himself trying to escape from spiders that were not real. During a nightmare about the hairy, multi-legged terrors, Hill ran up his stairs, severely scraped his knees and elbows, and then (the story goes) crashed through a glass table before his wife was finally able to shout him awake. He came to the ballpark on crutches, then offered incredulous reporters to come to his apartment and see the blood stains on the carpet. Pass.

George Brett and the Impatient Dash. Brett said he was in his house doing laundry (!) in 1983 with a game on TV in the background, when he heard the announcer say that his friend Bill Buckner was heading to the plate. Eager to watch the at-bat, Brett rushed to the TV room, slammed his foot against a door and broke one of his toes. It was, at the time, Brett’s 19th injury in eight seasons.

Other Baseball Homestead Maladies. Boston’s Bob Stanley fell down his stairs while taking out the trash in 1988, landing on a glass bottle and injuring nerves and tendons in his pitching hand that required surgery. Mike Matheny in 2000 severed two tendons and a nerve on his right ring finger after cutting himself with a hunting knife he received as a birthday present. Greg Minton drove a nail through the middle of his pitching hand just before spring training in 1985 while trying to shoe a horse. Adam Eaton missed a start for the Padres in 2001 after stabbing himself in the stomach with a small knife while trying to cut the shrink wrap off a DVD. And David Wells, just generally.

Clint Barmes’ Deer Problems. Barmas was enjoying a great start to his rookie season with the Rockies in 2005, hitting .329 in the early going, when he suffered a broken collarbone. On a catch against the wall? Negative. Barmes said he fell while trying to haul a package of deer meat that had been gifted to him by his teammate, Todd Helton. (The guys had been riding ATVs that day, but both claimed that it had nothing to do with the injury.) Barmes missed three months. Helton wound up hitting .320. The Rockies went 67-95, so about normal.

Dustin Penner’s Flapjacks Conundrum. Penner, a forward with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings in 2012, missed a game after suffering back spasms while eating pancakes. “I woke up fine, sat down to eat and [my back] locked right up,” Penner said at the time. “I just leaned over to dip into some delicious pancakes that my wife made.” (No, “pancakes” is not code for anything. What’s wrong with you?)

I’m just getting warmed up, but we’ll pause it there for now. We are almost certain to revisit this during the baseball season, which brings out the weirdest in injury explanations.

Oh! Hall of Famer Tom Glavine once vomited so violently from bad airline food that he cracked two ribs, requiring a trip to the injury list, and Detroit pitcher Joel Zumaya missed part of the Tigers’ 2006 post-season World Series run because he injured his wrist playing too much Guitar Hero. Don’t tell me we won’t be talking again.