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FOOD FOLLIES



Former outfielder Kevin Mitchell once strained a muscle while vomiting due to food poisoning–not quite as bad as Tom Glavine breaking a rib throwing up airplane food — but it is another of Mitchell’s food-related mishaps that takes the cake.

He missed the first four days of spring training in 1990 when he microwaved a frozen doughnut for too long, making the doughnut hard. He required a root canal after eating it. Mitchell might have been wise to take the incident as a warning — in 1997 he ballooned to 255 pounds, and, according to Sports Illustrated, was the first player in Cleveland Indians history to be unable to finish an 850-yard training run.

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Toronto pitcher Ricky Romero’s journey from “that guy the Jays drafted instead of Troy Tulowitzki” to Roy Halladay’s heir apparent has not been without its hiccups — or its sneezes. Romero was sidelined for several weeks last year with an oblique strain he first felt after sneezing.

“It’s crazy,” he told reporters after the injury. “Even now I’m afraid to sneeze.”

Romero joined an illustrious group of big-leaguers who have missed time due to sneeze-related injuries that includes Hall of Fame pitcher Goose Gossage and Sammy Sosa, who hit 609 career homers.

“It would’ve been better if I had run into the wall or we had a fight with somebody,” Sosa said after a pair of sneezes gave him back spasms.

Still, it could have been worse — an English woman named Victoria Kenny once ruptured a disc in her back while sneezing. The sneeze paralyzed her and she needed surgery before she could walk again.