After recording his 100th strikeout of the year, Khalil Greene took out his frustration on a storage chest in the clubhouse tunnel. And just like everything else that's gone up against the Padres this year, the storage chest won. Greene fractured his left hand and will miss the rest of the season. From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
"I don't know how to put into words the frustration level, how difficult this year has been," Greene said. "For me to do that, it's certainly not commonplace."
Greene finishes the year hitting just .213 with 10 home runs and 35 RBI in 389 at-bats, a far cry from last season when he hit .254 with 27 homers and 97 RBI. While it's a little ridiculous for Greene's season to end with a self-inflicted injury, the fact that he's back on the DL is hardly a surprise: since his rookie year, he's played more than 121 games just once in the past four years.
I'm curious: who do you think looks more foolish? Greene, for breaking his hand by attacking in inanimate object, or Matt Bush, the Padres' shortstop-turned-pitching prospect who "suffered bodily harm" (for the life I me I can't find a report saying what exactly he hurt) in a bar fight last month?
A bar fight is more of a PR headache, but at least there's a 50/50 chance Bush was reasonably provoked. Punching a storage chest? That's just dumb. Savvy veterans know that a bat to the water cooler is far more effective.
