Friday, February 12, 2010

Bergesen strained shoulder shooting TV ad

What is going on with the Orioles lately? First, Adam Jones gets pulled over by a police officer in the middle of a radio interview, which leads to his mother defending his integrity online, and now, Brad Bergesen apparently "has a strained right shoulder capsule" that he injured while "shooting a TV commercial for the team in early December."

As I'm sure most Orioles fans remember, Bergesen's solid rookie season was cut short last July when Kansas City Royals slugger Billy Butler hit a line drive that struck Bergesen's shin, which ended his season.

According to the article, Bergesen hasn't been able to throw off a mound for two months. Here's what happened, with some quotes from Bergesen on the injury:

"I think initially I will probably be 10 days behind everyone, but I am not coming off a major arm injury or surgery," Bergesen told the Sun. "Once they feel I am capable of being on the mound and having good sessions, then I will be caught up to everyone."

...

The commercial shoot, filmed in an indoor batting cage at Camden Yards, was actually the first time he had thrown off a mound since sustaining the leg injury.

"Obviously, I hadn't picked up a ball -- I'm kicking myself in the head about it," Bergesen told the newspaper. "That's really what it was from -- not working on a mound up to that point.

"I just jumped up on the mound and gave it a go. I was trying to be game-speed. I was trying to be as realistic as possible with it. The production company that came in wanted it to be as realistic as possible. And I was trying to please, and I got caught up in a moment."

As long as Bergesen's back to 100 percent in a few weeks or so, this doesn't seem like a big deal. But it does seem a little misguided for Bergesen to blame the production company when, you know, the goal is to be able to pitch, not to make realistic team commercials.

According to Jeff Zrebiec and Dan Connolly, who first reported the story for The Baltimore Sun, if Bergesen isn't fully healed by Opening Day, either Jason Berken or David Hernandez could take his slot in the rotation. Hooray.

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