 Youk with a boo-boo. Photo lifted from WBZ.com (who lifted it from NESN) |
So I pick on Youk this morning and this afternoon he’s out of the WBC with a sprained ankle. My powers know no limits!!
I don’t blame me. Hell, I don’t even blame Youk. I could blame the WBC but it isn’t a person so you can’t really assign it blame. Everyone wants to blame Bud Selig, so I’ll let them do so.
I blame Davey Johnson, the bastard.
Johnson said the injury happened three or four days ago, and that Johnson noticed Youkilis was in pain during Team USA’s 6-5 comeback win over Puerto Rico.
Teammate Brad Ziegler said Youkilis was in such pain that after the game he could barely walk through the training room.
“He wasn’t going to miss last night’s game for the world,” Johnson said. “We’ve been devastated by some key injuries.”
Mr. Johnson, this might come as a surprise to you, but you’re the manager of the team. If you knew one of your players was injured and still let him play, that’s on you. And if one of your players is injured and you say it took you three or four days to notice it, you’re either a liar or a really, really bad manager.
They just announced that on MLBN that Youk has a mild sprain and mild Achilles tendinitis in his left foot. Al Leiter and Harold Reynolds tell me he will be fine, so I guess I’ll take them at their word. In any event, I’m just happy that Pedroia and Youkilis aren’t playing this, relatively, meaningless game in the freaking rain.
On Twitter tonight I suggested a conspiracy theory that Youk suddenly had this ankle injury just as we were finding out how totally crappy the weather was going to be for the game. It would please me if this were to be the case, but I’m not holding out hope that it’s so.
Who do we have left out there, Daisuke, right? Bring him home, folks, bring him home!