In sports there’s a strong stigma against injuries. Guys who stay healthy for years at a time are lauded for some kind of special fortitude, while those who are prone to injuries are sometimes labeled as soft or weak.
And that’s how you end up with someone like Phillies pitcher Clay Buchholz apologizing to his team’s general manager for having a forearm sprain.
Clay Buchholz is here today. Said he apologized to Matt Klentak and others for getting hurt. Said he still hopes to pitch in September.
— Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) April 26, 2017
Buchholz came over to Philadelphia in a trade from Boston last offseason but quickly realized he wasn’t right physically and underwent surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon on April 18, having pitched only two games for his new team.
Buchholz surely wanted to have a big season in his last year before free agency to show that he can still be the guy who had a 1.74 ERA in 2013 or even the guy who had a 3.26 ERA in 2015. But that doesn’t mean he’s got anything to apologize for.
Todd Zolecki’s article on Phillies.com has more details:
“I apologized to just about everyone that I should apologize to,” he said. “Obviously, I didn’t want this to happen, but it did.”
He said he specifically apologized to Klentak and to his teammates.
“I wanted to pitch,” he said. “I wanted to be good. … I definitely don’t think I’m done playing. I’ve stayed healthy for the most part. This is the first issue that has involved surgery for me. That’s always scary going into. There are a lot of guys that come back. I’ve got a lot of buddies that come back from major surgeries and play for eight or nine more years.”
There’s something very uncomfortable about a player feeling the need to apologize for his body breaking down. There’s presumably little-to-nothing Buchholz could have done to prevent an arm strain—it’s not like this was a dirt bike injury or something.
Hopefully Matt Klentak and the Phillies players reassured Buchholz there’s nothing to apologize for. When you throw a baseball 90 miles an hour for a living, sometimes shit happens.
