After a win by the Angels on Saturday, a win made possible by a 10th inning grand slam by 1B Kendry Morales, the rest of the Angels gathered in a huddle around home plate so they could all jump up and down to celebrate and pound Morales about his head and shoulders. Morales came down the third base line with a huge smile on his face, and like most other runners in this type of celebration, jumped into the air to land on home plate with both feet. Unfortunately, Morales apparently landed wrong and broke his lower leg (left leg I believe). He dropped in pain instantly as the rest of the team began celebrating, but they stopped instantly when they realized Morales was hurt. After several minutes, Morales was taken off the field on a stretcher and had surgery sometime Saturday night.
The only “good” thing you could say about this incident is that Morales’ injury didn’t happen because the rest of the team fell on him as I have seen happen in some other celebrations. The fact someone got hurt in one of these celebrations was inevitable. Take 25 guys who weigh anywhere from 180 to 250 pounds in a big huddle, jumping up and down, and eventually someone WILL get hurt. You can make the argument that Morales wasn’t hurt by his teammates, but think about this…he, in all likelihood, would not have jumped high in the air to land on home plate had that huddle not been there.
Don’t be surprised if you see these celebrations stop in the near future. Teams will start telling players to stop the huddle celebrations because of the possibility of an injury. This type of celebration is fine if you just won the World Series, but kind of stupid for just a regular season win anyway. There are safer ways to celebrate a regular season win.
Remember when you could tell teams apart because the home team wore white-based uni’s and the road team wore gray?
