KL’s WTF: Turf Toe

Last year I had the kernel of an idea for something I could write for the blog about once a week or so, but it was only with some recent inspiration that the idea was fully formed. This is a good thing, because I have a hard time coming up with stuff off the cuff, and if we’re talking about baseball news, I’m usually too behind to post anything timely.

So, the inspiration. Earlier this month I was reading a news story about Delmon Young not being able to play for a little while due to turf toe. Somehow, the mental image that I always get when hearing about this type of injury is of a toe that has sadly turned green and is, well, sort of turfy. I knew this had to be wrong, so I called up my good friend Google and read up on the injury, because sure as heck I wasn’t going to ask on Twitter or someplace, for fear of looking stupid. I know full well that though I’ve been watching and attending baseball games for quite a few years, there’s a lot of knowledge I just haven’t picked up for one reason or another. And if I’m going to look this stuff up anyway, I might as well write about it and share it with you, our good readers. Maybe a few of you will be thankful that I’m filling you in on stuff you are also too embarrassed to ask about, but for the rest of you, perhaps you’ll at least get some amusement from my misadventures in educating myself about stuff I should probably already know.

As it turns out, turf toe has nothing to do with the color of any the digits of the foot. Imagine my relief upon reading this! And then my horror, because the information provided by MayoClinic.com here refers to the injury as “tear[ing] the capsule that surrounds the joint at the base of the toe.” Essentially it’s caused by hyperextending the big toe, which is something I’ve now added to my really long list of things I never want to do.

I’m hoping to make “KL’s WTF” a regular feature here at the Knuckleballs Blog, and while I just might be lacking in knowledge enough to keep it going by myself, if you have any questions you’re curious about (or too embarrassed to ask publicly; I’ll keep it anonymous if you’d like), just let me know via email or Twitter (see our Contact Us tab above for links) or include it as a comment to this post.