An Injured Joba Chamberlain In Limbo

Relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain of the New York Yankees has sustained a severe ankle injury while playing on a trampoline with his five year old son. He has already missed Spring Training due to having still been in recovery for Tommy John surgery. Chamberlain's injury is officially an open dislocation of his right ankle, with the bone protruding through the skin, causing him to lose a significant amount of blood during the incident.

While this is a major loss for the Yankees, they will just throw an unholy amount of money at someone else who is smiling from ear to ear to wear the old pinstripes. The real loss here is obviously for Joba Chamberlain, whose injury has him wondering if he will ever pitch again. It is still too early to determine the official timeframe for his recovery, as this type of injury has a wide array of possibilities when it comes to the healing process.

Chamberlain came up with the Yankees in 2007 as a fast-throwing relief pitcher whom the Yankees had slated to replace Mariano Rivera. Unfortunately, various pitching injuries have plagued his time in the Major Leagues, and now an unrelated injury has jeopardized his career. While visiting Chamberlain in the hospital, Girardi told him a story about his landing on the disabled list near the end of his career due to a back injury sustained while playfully throwing his daughter up in the air. Perhaps Girardi said it best when he told him afterward that "fathers are fathers."