Shane Victorino Survives Blood-Splattered Collision with Raul Ibanez

If there was one guy on this team who would suffer a bone-first collision to the face, lie there motionless for several minutes, slowly stand up, still twitching involuntarily, and ignore the copious flow of blood spewing from his nose and mouth before demanding that he was perfectly ready to play as a stadium full of shocked silent fans realized they were witnessing a sneak preview of their future nightmares, it would be Shane Victorino.

And yesterday, it was.

Are all the Phillies getting hurt?  I hadn’t noticed.  And because of how okay Shane is right now, even with the black eye and the cut really close to his eye and the sore jaw just a few inches below his eye, I barely noticed this one.  That’s why this post is so late.  Also, when bad things happen to Shane, I tend to feel them as well, so I’ve been nursing myself back to health.

When so many injuries happen in a row, people are quick to yell “CURSE!!” and run panicked through the streets.  At least, they were in 1911.  But that logic is surely applicable now, as we watch player after player fall down and die.

And why is this happening?  Age?  Disease?  Curse?

Well, mainly it’s happening because this is baseball, and the guys on our team play it pretty hard, which often prevents smooth sailing.  In fact, our sailing is more like we’re trying to see how close we can get to the rocks without hitting them, making it a panic-driven voyage to the shark-infested waters of fear.  But these are the breaks involved when your team is made up of guys willing to themsevles into the ground and/or Raul Ibanez’s shoulder to get the job done.  Which Shane didn’t, because the ball rolled away and Nate Spears slid into third with a triple.

But it’s not like we needed Spring Training to prove Shane Victorino knows how to catch a fly ball.  I mean it would’ve been nice, but I think we can all agree that hey, at least he’s stopped bleeding for now.