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March 06, 2013

The Sluggo of Berry Hill

                                                                 Damon Berryhill, 1991 Score

A funny thing happened on the way to the back of this card ...


A funny thing happened to Damon on his way to recovery from surgery on his right shoulder in '90.

That is a succinct, engaging lede. I can't wait to discover the funny thing that happened! Here are my guesses:

He fell down the stairs carrying a bag of rooster meat and broke his LEFT shoulder.

He decided he hated baseball and wanted to be a bicycle repairman.

He recovered fully and returned to playing baseball. (The funny thing was how seamless it all went.)

He had a fart attack.

Those are excellent guesses. Let's see which one is right.

While he was away, Joe Girardi stepped up and became a good No. 1 receiver for the Cubs.

UNBELIEVABLE. Guy gets injured and the team uses a different guy in his place? I have never heard of such a thing ever happening before. Why couldn't the Cubs just not have used a catcher for a little while? This truly is a very funny thing to have happened to Damon Berryhill. Hey, Berryhill, you're out of a job, ha ha! Nice shoulder problems, dude.

That means Damon will have to show he still has the right stuff

NKOTB reference, I like it.

Cubs Manager Don Zimmer: Hey Berryhill, still think you still got the right stuff?

Berryhill: I think so, Skip. Just gonna take it step by step.

Zimmer: Good call. Happy to see you're hangin' tough after that shoulder injury.

Berryhill: Yeah, no doubt. Please don't go girl.

Zimmer: You talking to me?

Before his debilitating injury, Damon was cited as the best defensive catcher in the NL. Known as "Sluggo," he had one of the strongest throwing arms in the game.

Back in my playing days (Little League), whenever I noticed a guy (kid) had a strong arm, I liked to nickname him, "Sluggo." Because of his arm.

Hey, way to gun that runner down at home from center field ... "Sluggo!"

Shut up, KENNY.

Unrelated: In 1989, Berryhill sluggo'd .341.

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