Jimmy Gobble Stepped on a Cactus

It's well known that baseball is full of weird injuries (it seems like a post starts like this at least once a month). Never before, in my recollection, has a player actually been injured by the namesake of his league. I mean, I suppose a collision in an AL game resulting in an injury means that the player may have been hurt by an American, but Jimmy Gobble takes this to a new level. While playing in the Cactus League, he stepped on and was injured by an actual cactus.

"It took Nick [Swartz, the Royals trainer,] about five minutes to get it," Gobble said. "He didn't have to cut anything. There was a gap where it had started to push up and lift my toenail."

It was a cactus needle. Too thin for earlier detection, but wedged in deep, and it had started to work its way out as the nail grew - just as the doctor predicted.

"It was probably an inch or a little over that," Gobble said. "As soon as it came out, I could tell the difference."

I suppose the next step is for Ryan Howard to be squirted in eye by a grapefruit, cartoon-style, Sometimes I honestly think that baseball players just wander around trying to one-up each other with the goofiest ways they can think of to get injured.

Via BBTF