Five New York Baseball Injuries So Bizarre, Fans Didn’t Believe They Happened

They hurt their WHAT?!

Look, sports injuries are very serious things. Every season, athletes across professional sports get injured, and have their careers and lives altered by them all of the time. Teams have entire staffs dedicated to treating player injuries, and those employees are some of the most valuable in pro sports.

That all being said, every now and then, an athlete will hurt themselves outside of the stadium or ballpark, and it just makes you scratch your head. These five New York baseball players fell victim to bizarre injuries that we still love to talk about today.

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Aaron Boone Tears His ACL Playing a Pick-up Basketball Game

Things went from the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows, for current Yankees' skipper Aaron Boone in 2003. After hitting the walk-off home run against the Boston Red Sox, Boone tore his ACL in a pick-up basketball game that offseason. With the acquisition of Alex Rodriguez, 2003 would end up being Boone's only season in New York.

Yoenis Cespedes Fractures His Ankle in a "Violent Fall" on His Ranch

In May of 2019, Cespedes mysteriously went on the injured list, after it was announced that he had fractured his ankle in an incident on his own ranch. It wasn't until that winter, however, that we found out Cespedes reportedly was charged by a wild boar that he was trying to catch, stepped in a hole, and fractured his ankle that way.

Cespedes would only play in eight more MLB games post-boar incident.

David Cone Misses a Start After Being Bitten on a Finger By a Dog

This wasn't exactly the dog eating David Cone's homework, but it's painfully close. Cone was a valuable member of the Yankees in 1998, but had to miss a start due to a certain type of finger laceration. More specifically, it was a bite on the ring finger of his pitching hand by his mother's Jack Russell terrier. Of ALL of the ways to get injured, that one really...bites.

Joba Chamberlain Fractures His Ankle Playing on a Trampoline

Joba Chamberlain can never be faulted for wanting to play with his kids. Taking time to play on the trampoline with your kids during a baseball season should be commended. If you're going to do that, however, it might be worth taking it easy, as Joba would come to find out. He suffered an ugly open dislocation of his ankle, with bystanders (probably falsely) reporting that he lost lethal amounts of blood. Chamberlain would return in August of 2012, but would leave the Yankees after an injury-plagued 2013 season.

Aroldis Chapman Lands on IL with Infection from Tattoo

And now, the most recent addition to the list: Aroldis Chapman. Chapman was back in the headlines this weekend, not for simply going on the injured list, but rather, for the reason why he's there. He recently got a new tattoo on his leg, but developed an infection in the area, and was experiencing significant leg discomfort during the Yankees' series in Oakland.

Now, he's on the injured list, being treated with antibiotics for another bizarre injury that occurred nowhere near a ballpark.