As far as I know there’s know real way to prevent it from happening either. It’s brought on by too much bending and quick side to side movement (which of course is what infielders do).

The mentality is to go out there and suck it up for a guy like Evan, who has played through some stuff that other guys would have sat through. But discretion is the better part of valor, and hopefully this episode will teach Evan that there are times where you just need to listen to what your body is telling you. Now, had he taken Saturday off, I cannot say for sure it would have prevented this. But it may well have been the smart thing to do.

Harrelson’s homer-ism goes way beyond what might be expected of a local announcer, he blames umps constantly, he pouts for innings at a time when he feels that calls have against the White Sox, sometimes leaving Stone to work alone (which is an improvement, but terribly unprofessional). I can’t think of a time when I ever felt like I was learning something about baseball from Harrelson.

If there were a stat like WAR of VORP for announcers, Harrleson’s would be negative.

It’s a cheap shot though to challenge the baseball credibility of the White Sox TV team of Harrelson and Steve Stone though. Both of these guys truly know baseball. You just have to overlook the obvious homer-ism.

The only thing that I don’t like though about Hawk is his dumb calls of “stretch, stretch” every time a White Sox player hits a deep fly ball. Now THAT is truly annoying!

Bottom line? This isn’t one of those J.D. Drew/Nick Johnson type sissy excuses to take a 15 day paid mini-vacation off while sitting on the DL; only rest, muscle relaxants and massage can get the muscles to all calm down enough to be able to go back to playing.

Hawk Harrelson made a great observation yesterday during the nationally televised White Sox game on WGN when he said, “infielders can survive in the minor leagues playing upright, but in the major leagues the games just too fast and to be successful you have to be able to get down while waiting for the ball”. Can’t do that with an angry oblique flaring up.

On the bright side though Rays fans, the injury will now give Evan ample time to go out shopping to replace his AK-47 assault rifle and sock full or 5 and 6 figure Rolex’s that he lost in the burglary or his rented house. Heck, he might even pick up a set of brass knuckles, a bazooka and some hand grenades too! Never know when you might need ‘em you know!