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Another day, another slate of contests from Arizona and Florida to ponder.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\nAnother day, another slate of contests from Arizona and Florida to ponder.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spring Training games generate a measure of meaning and interest through fringe players or newcomers competing to win roster spots and talented youngsters trying to catch the eye.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether a veteran looking for another chance or a rookie hoping to make it, the dream of the Big Leagues dangles in front of them all.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The promised land is within touching distance for a mighty few and achieving the goal of making an Opening Day roster in the Majors is something that should never be underestimated by us onlookers, conditioned as we are to seeing the best players making it look so natural and easy.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet the painful truth is that so often rosters are determined, and headlines are dominated, not by glorious tales of players winning positions, but others losing them.\u00c2\u00a0 The sheen of optimism that covers Spring Training is always broken by the dreaded curse of injuries.<\/p>\n
The St. Louis Cardinals were dealt a thumpingly hollow reminder of this within days of their camp opening.\u00c2\u00a0 Adam Wainwright\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elbow injury was the nightmare scenario that all teams dread.\u00c2\u00a0 Knowing that they were part of a fiercely competitive division this year, they couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to lose their best pitcher, and one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, for any stretch of time.<\/p>\n
To lose him for the entire season before a game has been played is the cruellest blow.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly not the case that their season is already over, but they know how tough it will be to win the NL Central after losing an irreplaceable part.<\/p>\n
One thing is for sure, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay for anyone to gloat about these things.\u00c2\u00a0 Any professional, indeed any true baseball fan, wants to see the best players on the field and wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wish an injury on anyone.\u00c2\u00a0 And even if you are of a heartless, cynical persuasion, avoiding the mocking of injuries is essential because you never know what is around the corner.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Milwaukee Brewers knew that Wainwright\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s injury weakened one of their rivals, but they also knew a similar fate could be awaiting them with one slip or trip or fling of an arm.\u00c2\u00a0 Or even an ill-timed basketball game.\u00c2\u00a0 Zack Greinke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rib injury takes the gloss of his arrival in Milwaukee and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll still be recovering, rather than pitching, when Opening Day arrives.\u00c2\u00a0 While it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look like Greinke will be out for too long, a Brew Crew basketball ban is surely now in effect.<\/p>\n
Why risk another mishap when the injury bug is already no respecter of name or status and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s timing couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be worse.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n