Not sure if anyone else will think this is funny, but despite the fact that it’s at my expense I was rolling when I got this email from a buddy of mine this morning. Be sure and read to the end.
Barmes clarifies injury details
He says he was carrying frozen deer meat – and not riding an ATV – when he broke his clavicle.
By Mike Klis, Denver Post Staff Writer
For the record, it was not a bag of groceries but a package of deer meat that led to the likely end of Clint Barmes’ storybook season. The deer meat was an after-dinner gift from Rockies star and avid outdoorsman Todd Helton.Barmes on Monday said he tripped going up the stairs to his apartment late Sunday while carrying groceries. The fall, he said, led to his broken left clavicle. Questions have swirled since because of the unusual nature of the injury that cost the Rockies their potential rookie of the year and all-star representative.
Barmes attempted to set the record straight Wednesday, starting with why he said he was carrying groceries and not deer meat.
“I just didn’t think it was right to bring Todd Helton into something like this,” Barmes said Wednesday from his apartment, with his mother, Erma, nearby. She flew in from Vincennes, Ind., to help her son.
“My feeling was some things are personal and the public doesn’t need to know everything.”
Barmes recounted the fateful day that probably cost him his season.
On Sunday afternoon, he helped the Rockies finish off a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds by hitting a home run. After the game, he and rookie teammate Brad Hawpe went along as guests to Helton’s ranch near Greeley. While there, they rode four-wheel all-terrain vehicles. Any time ATV rides and a broken collarbone occur on the same day, people whisper: Did one lead to the other?
“I knew that people were going to assume that as soon as I heard what happened with Clint,” Helton said. “I cannot say it strongly enough – he did not get hurt riding an ATV. I was there. He never left my eyesight the entire time. He should not have to defend himself.”
Helton said he and his teammates were riding at about 5 miles per hour and occasionally stopping while looking for deer through binoculars. After the ride, Helton said he treated his teammates to a dinner that included deer meat nabbed from one of his earlier hunts.
Barmes liked it so much Helton gave him a package from his freezer.
It was upon returning to his apartment around 10 p.m. Sunday that Barmes said he sustained the injury.
“I’m not going to deny I rode on an ATV,” Barmes said. “But it was more like we were trolling than riding. We were out scouting for deer. That’s not how I broke my collarbone.”
Unlike NFL tight end Kellen Winslow II, whose recent motorcycle injury reportedly cost him up to $5 million, there is nothing in Barmes’ contract – which is only $1,000 above the major-league minimum – that specifically prohibits ATV riding.
“I think that this also had a lot to do with the fact that Clint hates Steve OGrady and wants him to lose his fantasy baseball pool,” Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd said. “I cant blame him. That Steve OGrady is a real tool. I mean, seriously, the loser factor is always super high when youve got a 30-year old man pretending to manage a fictional baseball team, and then sucking at it. Get a life!”
For those that are a bit lost, Barmes was on my Fantasy Baseball team, and while my pitching staff is strong my offense is terrible. Barmes was singlehandedly carrying me for a month or two, and his loss is plumeting me to the bottom of my 8 team league.
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