Love or hate the New York Yankees, you have to admit that Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer of all-time. Rivera, 42, was already putting together what could have been a swan song season to close out his career, as he’s recorded 5 saves in 6 chances, with a 1-1 record and 2.16 ERA. Instead, he could be going out more like a dying duck, as he’ll miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Before yesterday’s 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals, Rivera was shagging fly batting practice balls in center field, like he usually does, and on a deep fly ball by Jayson Nix, Rivera turned awkwardly and twisted his knee (video after the jump). A lot of people might ask, “Why the hell was the 41-year old closer shagging fly balls in center field?” And the answer is: “Because Mo can apparently do whatever he wants.”

An outstanding athlete, Rivera fancies himself a credible center fielder, even pleading with Girardi to allow him to play center in a game before he retires. Girardi said he wanted to accommodate Rivera, but was too worried about an injury to let him go through with it.

Rivera has been a fixture in center field during batting practice, along with the other pitchers. But he always chased fly balls with more zeal and effort. (Via the New York Times)

And so begins a year of sports writers wondering if Rivera’s career is over, which we won’t know until he recovers, obviously. What we do know is that a guy like Rivera deserves better. If he’s going to blow out his knee, at least make it while he’s rescuing a basket of puppies from Skeletor. At least that’s how I’d like to go.

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Cagequest’s inaugural event took place last weekend in Lakewood, Washington, and if “make me vomit like seven times watching a guy’s leg snap at the bone and go all wonky” was their objective, they can consider the quest a success.

What you’re watching (or hopefully not watching) is fighter Justin Lee Fowler lifting opponent Bryan Jones Jr. up in a fireman’s carry and walking him to the middle of the ring. In a better world, he just kinda sets him down and they go out for milkshakes. In this one, Fowler slams Jones down leg-first and suddenly Ronda Rousey’s arm gymnastics don’t look so bad.

If you ask me, Fowler missed a great opportunity to stand over Jones’ body and pump his fists with the crowd chanting his name:

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Remember that really tall Chinese guy who came to the NBA, because he was so good at basketball in China, and featured in crazy soda commercials of him having an army of pandas?

That poor soul is dead and gone, yet Yao Ming’s body keeps chugging along, playing a couple emotionless games until the inevitable bone explosion. He fractured his right knee in 2006, had a stress fracture in his foot in 2008 and suffered a stress fracture in his left ankle just a couple weeks ago, ending his season and possibly longer. He’s just awfully break-y, huh?

If you’re a normal person, you’d think that the Rockets would let him heal and keep him around, since he’s been good his whole career when he’s healthy, almost averaging a double-double in his career in Houston (19.1 PPG, 9.3 RPG). What do the Rockets say, though? “WHO WANTS HIM?”

It actually makes sense, though, as Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo explains:

The lure of acquiring Yao for potential suitors is the $8 million in savings that insurance will provide for his $17.7 million expiring contract this season. Some teams are considering re-signing Yao on a short-term deal with hopes of restoring him to playing health, while others see his contract as a cost-saving measure.
…
The Rockets are dangling Yao to acquire a good young player with an upside, if not an established talent. Despite offering Yao in trades, the Rockets haven’t ruled out the possibility of re-signing him to a short-term contract extension.

Take a physically (and maybe mentally at this point) broken former great, save a lot of money. A very crafty sell, Daryl Morey. I’m sure Bill Simmons will write something about this, most likely inserting it as a tangent inside his NFL picks column (that’s how he rolls, brah).

As a final note, I present to you another great commercial featuring Yao. It’s great because his name sounds like an informal American greeting, and it’s also great because New York stereotypes are hilarious!

You might have heard that the Saints’ win against the 49ers last night came at the expense of Reggie Bush, who broke his leg on a muffed punt return. I usually think of “muffed” as meaning something not related to sports, but be that as it may: Bush suffered a broken fibula that is expected to keep him away from catching screen passes and out routes for six weeks.

“Last second it kind of shifted a little bit, just enough for me to drop it,” he said. “I tried to recover it and somebody took my leg out. I don’t know who it was, what happened or how it happened. I just know my leg got taken out. That’s it.

“It hurt like hell,” Bush said. “When I got back up and tried to walk on it, it felt terrible.” –Y! Sports.

Broken legs are like that. Someone on the KSK live blog last night–I apologize for forgetting whom–made the joke that Bush limping off the field was “not an admission to injury.” Oh, it’s so humorous when people break bones, particularly upper arm bones. And then there was this guy, whose injuries could generously be described as “season-ending.” I’ll take the broken leg, please.

This is Red Bull Salzburg goalkeep Eddie Gustafsson, who is about to enjoy a flying cleat right into the side of his shin. And since we’re posting it, you have a pretty good idea of what’s about to happen next. Video’s after the jump, but watch dude flying in there all “hi-ya!” and whatever. What else could he be trying to do other than snap the guy’s leg in half? Austrians probably love this kind of then. They practically rolled out a red carpet for all those Nazi tanks back in the day. That was Austria, right?

Head coach Huub Stevens was absolutely stunned by his goalkeeper’s injury.

“After seeing something as horrible as this, I really don’t care about winning the league title at the moment,” said Stevens on the official Red Bull website. –Goal.

Gustafsson was airlifted to the hospital and is expected to be out for “several months.” No word yet on how the offender, Lukas Kragl, will be disciplined. I suggest dragging him through the streets by his toenails. That’s probably why I’m not running Austrian soccer. Among other reasons. nichts fur schwache nerven, indeed. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: It’s an ACL and MCL tear. That’s what happens when one’s ligaments are so gritty.

Wes Welker and his 122 receptions might be sitting on the bench for the playoffs after injuring his knee in the first quarter of the Patriots’ game with the Texans. NFL.com has reported that Welker will not return to the game.

New England had clinched the AFC East title and a playoff berth heading into today’s game, and were mathematically eliminated from first-round bye contention in the AFC playoffs.

Should Welker have been in the game? If you read what I had to say about the Colts, who were grilled by some fans and media when they pulled their starters last week against the Jets. The Colts played their starters for two-and-a-half quarters before suddenly yanking their headliners off the field. That’s not exactly “resting” their players, especially if one of them would have taken an errant cut in the first quarter, as Welker did.

The Patriots weren’t playing to kinda-sorta continue an undefeated season. The Patriots didn’t have a first-round bye in the playoffs. And the Patriots wouldn’t have been doing a disservice to their fans by keeping their marquee players in street clothes. But they didn’t. They went out and played the game The Right Way. It’s a damn shame they weren’t better rewarded for it.