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One of the downsides of being a professional athlete is knowing there’s only so much you can do to avoid falling victim to the injuries that will almost undoubtedly rear their ugly head at some point during your career.
In most cases, those setbacks will occur when you’re playing or practicing, but when you get paid millions of dollars a year to play a sport for a living, you also need to be careful to avoid hazards you may encounter over the course of a typical day.
Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, as plenty of people have found themselves sidelined thanks to a freak occurrence that forced them to take some time off.
That includes plenty of guys in the MLB, which has been an epicenter for particularly strange setbacks over the years.
For example, Sammy Sosa once threw out his back after sneezing too hard, Manny Cordova missed multiple games thanks to a severe sunburn he had to grapple with after falling asleep in a tanning bed, and Clint Barmes needed surgery to fix the collarbone he broke while trying to carry a load of deer meat that was gifted to him by Todd Helton.
However, for my money, there isn’t a single baseball player who can match the manner in which Glenallen Hill ended up on the disabled list in 1990.
How a nightmare about spiders landed Glenallen Hill on the DL
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Hill played for seven teams over the course of an MLB career that spanned 13 seasons and more than 1,100 games, and while the man who boasted a lifetime batting average of .271 was certainly a solid player, he’s probably best remembered for what unfolded midway through the season in 1990.
The outfielder had made his debut with the Blue Jays the previous year and had settled into a bit of a groove by the time July rolled around. However, things took a turn when Toronto announced he’d been placed on the 15-day DL thanks to an injury that saw him roll into the SkyDome on a pair of crutches in the midst of a series against the Mariners.
Hill—who was sporting rug burns on his knees and cuts on his toes and elbows—spoke with reporters about the series of events that led to him being temporarily placed out of commission and admitted he’d had a nightmare about spiders that caused him to get out of bed in a semi-conscious state before crashing through a glass table.
While he eventually made a full recovery, he wasn’t able to live it down entirely, as he said many players referred to him as “Spiderman” in the years that followed the incident (he’d go on to suggest stress—not arachniphobia—was the primary cause and that he likely would’ve ended up in the same situation if he’d had a nightmare about something other than spiders).
Never underestimate the MLB’s ability to produce some of the strangest stories in sports.