Y’know these types of injuries would never fly in hockey. Hockey players take pride in their toughness and durability. Baseball players? Well…

• Roger Craig (Giants) - Cut his hand on a bra strap.
• Ryan Klesko (Braves) - Once overexerted himself and pulled a muscle while picking up his lunch tray.
• Wade Boggs (Red Sox) - Injured himself while pulling on his cowboy boots.
• Kevin Mitchell (Mets/Giants) - The master of all bizarre injuries, he once injured himself while eating a cupcake. That, of course, was when he wasn’t missing games because of vomiting-induced muscle strains, or strained eyelids.
• Ken Griffey, Jr. (Mariners) - Missed a game after suffering a pinched testicle from his protective cup.
• Jose Cardenal (Cubs) - Missed a game in 1974 because he couldn’t blink.
• Vince Coleman (Cardinals) - Missed the 1985 World Series after getting rolled up in the tarp machine.
• John Smoltz (Braves) - Once burned his chest while ironing a shirt, which he was still wearing.
• Carlos Perez (Expos) - Broke his nose in a car accident while trying to pass the team bus.
• Doc Gooden (Mets) - Missed a start when Vince Coleman accidentally struck him with a golf club in the clubhouse.
• Ricky Bones (Marlins) - Went on the disabled list in 2000 after injuring himself while changing channels on the clubhouse TV.
• Greg Harris (Rangers) - Injured his wrist while flicking sunflower seeds in the dugout

Courtesy ESPN.com

Newsweek Magazine offered an article on The Nine Most Obnoxious Habits of Gym Rats. Highlights:

1. The Sauna Stovetop A manager at a New York Sports Club was walking through the women’s locker room a few years ago when she smelled cheese. Puzzled, she opened the door to the sauna, where a woman had placed bread and cheese on the hot rocks to make a postworkout grilled cheese sandwich. “Not only was it a health code violation, it was not really respectful to the other people in the sauna,” says NYSC PR director Linda Hufcut. “She said, ‘I do this all the time.’ That was, obviously, the last time she ever did it.’”

2. Nude Fitness? A couple of visitors to a Gold’s Gym in Paramus, N.J., decided to get naked and weigh themselves before they started working out. The two men didn’t seem daunted by the fact that the scale was outside the locker room. They hung out by the scale, in full view of the other, clothed patrons, until a manager asked them to put some clothes on. They told Mike Epstein, the gym’s owner, that they did that sort of thing all the time at their home gym. Perhaps they meant “home gym” as in the one in their basement.

3. Creative Blow-Drying A man in a California Crunch gym decided that the best way to dry out his sweaty shoes was to stick a hair dryer in each of them while he took his after-workout shower. He was shocked when managers asked him to cease and desist. “He said, ‘I didn’t even realize I shouldn’t be doing this’,” says Keith Worts, chief operating officer of Crunch, a national fitness chain.

4. Downward Dog? At another Crunch location a man had a habit of taking a yoga class while wearing shorts without underwear. He was more than happy to correct his faux pas as soon as managers made him aware that other members were uncomfortable with the view they were getting.

5. Work Out, Sleep In Some people get a little too relaxed at the gym. Gold’s Gym managers have reported finding customers who fell asleep in the tanning facility and didn’t wake up until the gym was closed, as well as customers who fell asleep on the bench press in between sets.

6. Killer Karaoke It’s common and profoundly annoying: gymgoers get carried away listening to their music players. Before they know it they’ve treated everyone in the room to an off-key rendition of “…Baby One More Time.” “I call it karaoke gone bad, because there is no background music and they’re singing at the top of their lungs,” says Harry Reo, a regional vice president for 24 Hour Fitness.

7. Talking (Too Much of) the Talk Fed up with people gabbing on their cell phones as they used the elliptical, many gyms have banned cell phones around workout equipment and designated areas for patrons to make calls. Still, people forget. “There’s nothing worse than running on the treadmill and having someone next to you conducting an extremely loud conversation,” says Hufcut, who’s seen some people use walkie-talkies while on the treadmill.

8. Sweat Sins It seems basic, but enough people forget to wipe down their equipment after using it that this was one of the four deadly gym sins included on an informational video NYSC taped a few years ago. During the segment a careless gymgoer didn’t dry off his machine; when he stood up, the entire machine was covered in dripping goo.

9. Scrimmage to Scuffle It’s only logical that testosterone can run high at the gym, and sometimes managers need to break up altercations on the basketball court, says Nancy Pattee Francini, co-founder and president of the Sports Club/LA, which has 10 locations around the country. “Those guys, when they’re playing basketball, can get into fights,” she says. “They’re not terrible fights—we’re a high-end club.”

Your calls on the matter

Football season is here. Sometimes you get lucky and the woman in your life has a grasp on the basics of sports (especially hockey!) Men’s Fitness offers these tips for ’splainin’ football to a  novice in her terms:

• Ineligible receiver: Explain the idea of a player on the offensive team who is not allowed to catch a pass by likening it to her hot-yet-married male co-worker, grad-school history professor, gay male hairstylist, or anyone else who cannot accept her passes.
• Pump fake: Compare this QB ploy to the way women give out fake phone numbers at a bar. The point is to trick the opposing team — or persistent drunk guy — into thinking the object of their desire is actually within reach.
• Hail Mary: This is a desperate, last-ditch effort to score — so characterize it as last call, when clueless (read: horny) patrons lob lame pickup lines toward anyone left unhitched in a final, pathetic effort to, well, score. Tell her that, like the closing-time tactic, it’s rare that this football play actually works.
• Huddle: Explain that this is identical to female group trips to the restroom. Once there, women decide on the “play” for that evening, whether it’s calling dibs on the guys they find attractive or concocting a plan to ditch their dates.