11/23/24
October 17, 2007
Top 50 Sporting Injuries: - a list from the Times.
I would move that Dravecky story up quite a bit. The guy broke his arm twice and ultimately had it amputated. I am sure Beckham's boo-boo was pretty serious but come on. #2 Malarchuck gets his jugular vein slit with ice skate. #1 I'm sorry, Beckham gets hit in the head with a shoe requiring two stitches? I respectfully disagree with the author but a great read. Thanks JJ.
posted by kyrilmitch_76 at 04:56 AM on October 17, 2007
This list is missing a few disasters. #1 should have been the deadly punch that Rudy tomjanovich took in the 70's. It nearly killed him...and definitely scarred him!
posted by nflhou02 at 05:15 AM on October 17, 2007
There certainly was a lot of cringe-worthy material in that one. The rugby player getting his scrotum split open, losing four teeth and getting knocked out, all in the same match, is friggin' crazy.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 06:25 AM on October 17, 2007
How about Drew Bledsoe's injury from Mo Lewis' hit. Led to 3 super bowls so far. Very big impact injury.
posted by endorfin at 07:17 AM on October 17, 2007
I think the only explanation to put Beckham at #1 is to allow their readers (the target audience of the paper, not the internet) to actually get to the end of the list and have a specific memory of the "injury" in question rather than read about something they've probably never heard of (Malarchuk). But Malarchuk was the first thing that came to my mind so good thing he was on there.
posted by gspm at 07:27 AM on October 17, 2007
I'm not digging up the photo, but Hasim Rahman's head boo-boo still bothers me. Too bad the alien never popped out.
posted by yerfatma at 08:21 AM on October 17, 2007
Surprisingly there is no mention of Mickey Cochran. Tigers catcher in the 30's who was hit in he head by a pitch and nearly died.
posted by scottypup at 08:29 AM on October 17, 2007
I have a serious one and sort of a freak injury. I'll start with the freak one. I believe it was the 3rd baseman for Cincinatti. Getting hit, I think by a foul ball while on deck. Rupturing his eye. I actually have 2 serious ones. I'll start with the more recent one. QB Trent Green I believe f9or the dolphins. He was trying to deliver a block on an offensive play. The guy got the better of Green. He is only 30. The injury is no laughing matter, it is the most serious type on concusion. Usually yu would see Grade 1, but Green has a Grade 3. It's so serious that his career could end sooner than he wanted it to. Now for what I call the most seious inury in football. It happened opening day this season between I think Denver and Buffalo Bills. Tight end Kevin Everett was trying to make a tackle. He cfell to the grund because he missed, I think. The impact was so horrible that he was carried off on a stretcher. Because f the injury, people were thinking, he will never walk again. Since then, he has made a great recovery. He can move around now. BEST WISHES EVERETT FAMILY.
posted by funebune at 08:51 AM on October 17, 2007
Very in depth post, funebune. Thanks for that. Thought provoking, to say the least
posted by texasred at 09:09 AM on October 17, 2007
It's not a serious injury, but this has always been my favourite. 
Which explains his time with the Dolphins.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 09:10 AM on October 17, 2007
I would have put in Hermann Maier's near-amputation of his leg. It didn't happen on the slopes, but then, a lot of the above injuries didn't happen on the field/pitch/ice/track/whatever.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:57 AM on October 17, 2007
Here is a quiz on odd injuries. Top 10 Wierd Sports Injuries
posted by urall cloolis at 10:15 AM on October 17, 2007
Mr Bismarck, hilarious! Darryl Stingley is about as devastating as it gets without dying, plus the lingering bitterness over how Jack Tatum handled it. Not sure if you could call it sports injury per se, but Todd Bertuzzi's jamming Steve Moore's face into the ice is about as bad as poor sportsmanship gets, even in hockey goondom.
posted by drumdance at 11:12 AM on October 17, 2007
Where is Bo Jackson, Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan, Adam Petty,
posted by Ironhead at 11:20 AM on October 17, 2007
Wasn't there an international basketball player from a few years back that got upset with a call and head-butted the padded backboard support and collapased with a broken neck?
posted by jwhite613 at 12:28 PM on October 17, 2007
Anyone else remember Napoleon McCallum's leg bending the wrong way on that goal line play? And how about Tim Krumrie rolling on the turf in the Super Bowl with both bones in his lower leg snapped and flopping? Bleeeaaah.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:30 PM on October 17, 2007
Tim Krumrie you say? How about David Busst. (YouTube link) Fortunately the youtube video doesn't show any great detail, but it's worth watching for Schmeichel's reaction. Busst effectively disintegrated both tibia and fibula in his right leg and the game was delayed for more than a quarter of an hour while the blood was cleaned off the grass. Busst ended up having something like 25 operations to repair his leg.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 01:19 PM on October 17, 2007
Oh yeah I almost forgot. Where is Dale Earnhardt.
posted by Ironhead at 01:59 PM on October 17, 2007
I can remember watching the Theismann injury on tv with my dad. I'm not saying that it was the worst injury out there, but my father served in Vietnam and said that the injury to Theismann was one of the worst things he had ever seen and it kinda turn my stomach to this day. Another nasty injury that I can remember was also on Monday Night Football when Ken Norton was coming low on a runningback and the player moved at the last moment and Norton hit his teammate Bryant Young in the leg breaking it.
posted by jda at 02:03 PM on October 17, 2007
I was in high school and remember hearing about the Theisman injury the next day after it happened. I've never watched it because I don't think I could stomach it.
posted by drumdance at 02:06 PM on October 17, 2007
Thiesmann's injury to be sure was pretty bad, but I think effect-wise it isn't nearly as bad as those guys in kick boxing. Their bare legs were flopping around as they tried to stand on them. Ole Joe's was covered by uniform.
posted by Ricardo at 02:16 PM on October 17, 2007
Bert Trautmann. Breaks neck. Still keeps playing. Wins Cup Final. Respect. Mick Stephenson, the English rugby league player and now commentator, used to turn out for Penrith in the Sydney competition in the 70s. He was one of the toughest bastards I ever saw. In one match, his testicle became partly ripped away (like Wayne Shelford's, I presume). He got the club doctor to temporarily stitch it to his inner thigh and then kept on playing.
posted by owlhouse at 02:42 PM on October 17, 2007
Oh yeah I almost forgot. Where is Dale Earnhardt. He's not so much injured as dead. Compiling lists of injuries is borderline enough, particularly when some of them have permanent consequences, but fatalities tend to be thought of as in another realm altogether.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 03:07 PM on October 17, 2007
I was looking for Ed McCaffrey, and maybe a mention of the track & field judge who took a javelin in the chest, but still managed to plant the flag indicating where the javelin would have landed. I might have just missed that guy while skimming through, though.
posted by LionIndex at 03:49 PM on October 17, 2007
Yeah who would have thought that having people in the field of play during a javelin event could be dangerous?
posted by kyrilmitch_76 at 04:12 PM on October 17, 2007
I'm surprised Bobby Baun didn't make the list. All he did was score an overtime Stanley Cup Final game winning goal whilst playing on a broken ankle. Buck Martinez should have made the list as well. He tagged out the second of 2 Seattle Mariners at home plate after suffering a broken leg and dislocated ankle blocking the plate when the first runner came in.
posted by tommybiden at 04:40 PM on October 17, 2007
I would move that Dravecky story up quite a bit. Me too. I was watching the game on TV when it happened. Extremely disturbing sight and sound. His bone breaking echoed in the Olympic Stadium like a gunshot. Awful.
posted by qbert72 at 05:13 PM on October 17, 2007
Anyone else remember Napoleon McCallum's leg bending the wrong way on that goal line play? I think I speak for everyone when I say,"If you saw it, you will never forget it." That was the nastiest sports injury that I have ever witnessed live, not to mention the 300 replays they showed. (FYI It wasn't on the goal-line)
posted by docshredder at 06:40 PM on October 17, 2007
Until a player actually explodes during a sporting event, this list will always be topped by Clint Malarchuk. Me too. I was watching the game on TV when it happened. Extremely disturbing sight and sound. His bone breaking echoed in the Olympic Stadium like a gunshot. Awful The same thing happened to Tony Saunders a few years later.
posted by grum@work at 06:55 PM on October 17, 2007
Oh yeah I almost forgot. Where is Dale Earnhardt. Still dead, apparently.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 08:56 AM on October 18, 2007
"I see. Let me know if there's any change in his condition." "How is he?" "He's dead."
posted by JJ at 10:34 AM on October 18, 2007
I was umpiring a softball game some years ago. A runner sliding into 3rd caught a spike. I could hear his leg snap from behind the plate, and when I saw the way his foot bent, I nearly tossed lunch. It turned out that he had broken his leg in 3 places, tibia and 2 high ankle breaks, and nobody thought he'd ever be back on the field. He fooled us all, and was back on the field in less than 6 months.
posted by Howard_T at 12:06 AM on October 19, 2007
While we're on softball, I'll see your shattered leg/ankle combo and raise you a torn scrotum and badly damaged testicles. I was playing second base in our local softie league when a guy on the other team hits a towering drive towards center field, where our guy runs back and attempts to hurdle the short chain link fence, hoping to make a circus catch. Instead, he snagged himself going over the fence, and suffered horrible injuries in his most personal of areas. Unlike Howard's injury story, though, this guy hung up his cleats after that incident.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 10:03 AM on October 19, 2007
I'll start with the more recent one. QB Trent Green I believe f9or the dolphins. He was trying to deliver a block on an offensive play. The guy got the better of Green. He is only 30. Sorry to correct you funebune but Trent Green is actually 37. I have one: What about the Willis McGahee injury while he was playing for Miami? Now that was a bad one.
posted by BornIcon at 10:17 AM on October 19, 2007
I was going to mention that one BI. That was a brutal injury.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 03:48 PM on October 19, 2007
Not quite sure how they can justify the number one, but otherwise, some nasty stuff in there.