There are a two things Carl Pavano does well in life: falling down and getting hurt. In between, he plays a little baseball.
The free agent pitcher who infamously spent a significant chunk of his Yankee career on the disabled list after falling in a spring training game and injuring his buttocks has gone and topped himself in the high stakes world of stupid athlete injuries. According to Ken Rosenthal, who is clearly running out of rumors to report on, Pavano was-
I'm sorry, I can't stop laughing while typing, so I'll just quote the report instead:
Pavano, 37, recently suffered a ruptured spleen that will sideline him for 6 to 8 weeks, according to major-league sources.
The injury occurred when slipped and fell while shoveling snow on his driveway in Vermont, one source said.
Seriously, if I had withheld the name of the player injured in this accident, how many guesses would it have taken for you to come up with Pavano. Two? Maybe three if you hadn't had your morning coffee yet, right?
For Pavano though, this is no laughing matter. He missed most of last season with soreness in his pitching shoulder and remains unsigned on the free agent market, though a few teams had just started sniffing around. With it now looking like he will miss the entirety of spring training, Pavano could be in a tight spot landing a gig by Opening Day this year since he has yet to actually prove to anyone that his shoulder, much less his spleen, is in prime working condition.
He will probably find a team to sign on with eventually, perhaps as a mid-season addition to bolster a rotation plagued by injuries, ironically. For his sake, let's hope it is a team in a warm snow-free climate.
