Sale Joins List of Chicago’s Top Sidelined Athletes

March 1, 2015 @ admin → No Comments

Sunday smorgasbord: Injuries to Chicago sports stars continue. There’s Derrick Rose of the Bulls, Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks and the latest being Chris Sale of the White Sox. Once again, the Cubs are lagging. For a change, gladly so. Give them time.

Video below of Sports Illustrated Rookie of the Year Kelly Rohrbach.

* Speaking of injuries, when was the last time anyone had a comedic one? You know, as opposed to the serious ones. Maybe suffered slipping on a banana. But only if there’s video of it.

* Speaking of Sale, he is going to be out about three weeks. Meaning he is way ahead of schedule for missing time pitching this season. On the bright (?) side, it’s not his elbow or his shoulder. It’s his foot. More specifically: an avulsion fracture to the lateral side of his right foot. Whatever that means. Mostly what that means is he could miss Opening Day. Sox general manager Rick Hahn said Sale suffered the injury Friday at home when he landed “awkwardly when he got off the back of his truck” while unloading items. Sale did not provide a serious version of how he suffered the injury, but he did offer a comedic one. If that makes any Sox fans feel any better (and the guess here is that it does not).

* Speaking of the bright side for the Sox, at least they no longer have Ronald Belisario on their roster. The right-hander reported to spring training with Tampa Bay, which invited him to camp. He will be unable to throw for several weeks because the right-hander injured his non-pitching shoulder during the offseason at his home in Venezuela. “He said he had an accident a month ago getting out of a swimming pool,” Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman said. “And it hadn’t been checked out until he got here. It’s going to push him back several weeks. We don’t expect him to be ready for the beginning of the season.” In case anyone was wondering whether Belisario would make the Rays’ roster. Quick question: They do have doctors in Venezuela, right? Asking for a friend.

* Speaking of Rose (well, we were a few paragraphs ago), he was rehabbing Saturday after surgery Friday. The possibility of his return this season or postseason exists, which makes one wonder (OK, maybe only this one crafting together typing today’s effort) whether there’s a Comeback Comeback Player of the Year award. You know, for players coming back during a season in which they could be Comeback Player of the Year. Oh, never mind.

* The big question for the Bulls is whether Pau Gasol, who missed Friday’s victory vs. Minnesota, will be well enough to play Sunday afternoon against the visiting Los Angeles Clippers. The second-biggest question is whether Rose will be on the bench for the nationally televised contest. After all, the NBA does want to satisfy its telecast partners with a certain amount of face time for Rose, no? OK, not in street clothes — unless such attire is from the official haberdasher of the NBA. And dashing possibly could apply to Rose in wardrobe, not his running ability at the moment.

* Congratulations to Kelly Rohrbach for winning the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Rookie of the Year award. She garnered 39 percent of the votes to runner-up Erin Heatherton’s 32. Rose Bertram was third (13 percent), followed by Solveig (7 percent). Ashley Smith, Hailey Clauson and Robyn Lawley each had 3 percent. And if anyone out there thinks we are running this news merely to run video and photos of swimsuit models, your humble correspondent doesn’t know what to say — other than there may be a shred of truth to the observation.

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