Boesch's nasty bruise, which he says he got stealing a base (successfully) the other day, is a classic example of the part of athletes' lives people don't always see. It's news when Roy Halladay is out for weeks with a serious shoulder injury, but less attention is given to those who soldier on with bumps that may make normal people grab an ice pack.
Boston fans have a couple of sports heroes gutting through pain right now. The biggest example is Ray Allen, who just doesn't look like himself on the court these days as he battles with pain in his ankles from bone spurs. Allen has been missing foul shots and doesn't have any lift on his jumper. As the old cliché says, you'd have to kill him to keep him from playing with the Celtics in the playoffs, but it's still amazing to see Allen putting himself out there right now as such a shell of himself. He'll likely need offseason surgery to get back to form.
The other Boston sports figure dealing with pain — that people know of, that is — is Dustin Pedroia. The second baseman left Monday's game with a jammed thumb, and Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said Tuesday that it's an issue Pedroia has been dealing with for a bit.
It's not new for sports stars to gut through pain as the season progresses. Players are regularly knicked up as the year goes on, and bruises, jams and scrapes are more often hidden than shared, since guys want to play every second they can.
"I tend to get them every once in a while," Boesch said Tuesday of his war wound. "You play the game hard, you're going to get some scratches and scrapes."
He insisted it was nothing to brag about, and agreed — knock on wood — that he'd likely have to dislocate something before he let an injury bother him.
"I hope not," he said.
Still, Brennan, that's pretty gross.
