Injury

Can you both dislike a player and not wish him ill?  That’s basically how I feel about Derrick Rose, someone who got a free pass when it comes to academics (Google the rumors in re high school and college) only to be dealt the injury card a third time this week at the age of 26.  There’s luck and what Derrick Rose has.

It’s impossible to tell how good Rose will be after surgery to repair the meniscus in his right knee.  He may yet, though I doubt it, justify the $94.3 million contract he signed with the Bulls in 2011.  Injuries happen all the time in pro sports.  Consider the career of Greg Bollo.

A 6’ 4” right hander out of Western Michigan, Bollo signed with the White Sox in 1964 and made the team at the age of 21 a year later.  He pitched a total of 29.2 innings in 1965-1966, and then vanished.  Bollo’s major-league career was over before he could celebrate his 23^rd birthday.  I always wondered why, if for no other reason I liked the name “Bollo,” which struck me as a little like “Bukowski.”

Around the time Greg Bollo turned 70 I found out what happened while reading an online CNN Money story on Tommy John and Frank Jobe, the surgeon who saved his career.  According to John, “We had a kid when I was with the White Sox named Greg Bollo who could really throw the ball.  But after he had [bone] chips taken out in 1966, he was never able to come back.  There were a lot of guys like that.  It was a real shame.” (“Surgeon Should Make Cooperstown ‘Cut,’” Chris Isidore, CNN Money, 7-27-07)

Elbow, knee, shoulder, back—the body will betray an athlete a hundred different ways.  The lucky player will have a big contract that provides protection.  But with or without a boatload of money, the career is over, and life goes on.