Former Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa's strange injury

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Sammy Sosa, Chicago Cubs (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images) /

Former Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa has landed on a list that nobody wants to be on. A sneeze that landed on him the DL.

The spectacular was a trademark of former Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa’s career.

Over 1600 RBIs, 609 dingers (ninth all-time), that season he hit 66 home runs (third all-time), the home run trot and celebration, and everything in between.

But Sosa was not only known for the spectacular but also the spectacularly unusual. From the corked bat incident to refusing to play in what would have been his last game as a Cub, drama often followed the Chicago Cubs star right fielder.

A pretty cool Bleacher Report list reminded me of another one of the peculiarities of Sosa’s career. The list details some of the strangest injuries in MLB history.

Of course, Slammin’ Sammy made the list because of the sneeze heard around Chicago in 2004.

Sammy Sosa, Chicago Cubs (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: ‘The sneeze’

Before a May 2004 game against the San Diego Padres, Sosa sneezed so violently that he sprained ligaments in his lower back. It happened when he was talking to reporters before the game no less. He missed about a month with the injury. In the 91 games that he played that season after the injury, he slashed .238/.311/.488 and struck out 98 times.

Of course, all of this preceded Sosa’s ugly falling out from the team, which included the previously mentioned refusing to play in the Cubs final game of the season stint, leaving the game early, and then getting traded to the Baltimore Orioles in the offseason.

The Cubs, a team one year removed from a National League Championship Series appearance against the Florida Marlins, actually won more games in 2004 than they had in 2003. However, they finished third in the division in 2004.

As Bleacher Report notes, Sosa isn’t the only player to land on the disabled list after a sneeze gone wrong.

Terrible Cases of the Sneezes One is unanticipated. Two is bizarre. But this? What an absurd trend. More than a handful of players have missed time after a sneeze gone wrong. The most notable is Sammy Sosa in 2004, while more recent cases are Ricky Romero in 2009 and Kevin Pillar in 2015. h/t David Kenyon, Bleacher Report

Even though the injuries didn’t happen while they were Chicago Cubs, other guys made the list who Cubs fans will recognize as guys who once called Wrigley Field home.

Glenallen Hill, Chicago Cubs (Photo credit should read JOHN ZICH/AFP via Getty Images) /

Chicago Cubs: ‘I had dream…that I was attacked by spiders.’

Glenallen Hill (five seasons with the Cubs in the ’90s) had a dream that he was getting attacked by spiders. He ended up sleepwalking, and while he was doing that, he shattered a glass table, slicing up his hands and feet. He missed about three weeks with the injuries.

Cubs fans probably remember Milton Bradley as fiery and bizarre. So if anybody was to end up on this list, it isn’t a surprise that it was this guy.

His temper technically caused the injury but not in the way you are probably thinking. When he was with the San Diego Padres in 2007, he got in an argument with a home-plate umpire. His manager Bud Black came out to defend him. Black attempted to spin Bradley around to get him out of the umpire’s face. Bradley’s leg caught in the turf, and he ended up tearing his ACL, which ended his season.

Chris Coghlan is also on the list. And no, it wasn’t from when he dove over Yadier Molina to score a run when he played for the Toronto Blue Jays. Back when he played for the Marlins, he was trying to pie a teammate in a postgame interview and tore his meniscus messing around.

Finally, Cubs reliever Brian Duensing also made the list with his bizarro injury. His was probably a lot less painful than the two guys who had significant knee injures. Regardless, the lefty sat in a bullpen chair wrong, inducing arm soreness, which led to inflammation and doctors having to remove cartilage chips from his elbow.

Next. An Anthony Rizzo-type hitter is becoming rare. dark

Let’s conclude with the two takeaways from this article.

The fact that we’re talking about stuff like this right now shows how much everybody misses baseball. We need it, but things need to be safe obviously before that can happen. In the meantime, another Chicago Cub is helping to combat the coronavirus.
Here’s hoping that no Cubs player finds himself on a list like this anytime soon

Home / Chicago Cubs News

Chicago Cubs: Sammy Sosa’s sneeze makes B/R list of weirdest MLB injuries

Former Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa has landed on a list that nobody wants to be on. A sneeze that landed on him the DL.

Chicago Cubs: ‘The sneeze’

Chicago Cubs: ‘I had dream…that I was attacked by spiders.’

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