Harrison Bader’s first season with the Giants has already been a grind, and the latest setback only deepened it.
The outfielder, who has been sidelined for two months with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, suffered what the Giants described Tuesday as a “scooter accident on Saturday night/early Sunday morning” that further injured the same foot. The team did not offer any additional details, and manager Tony Vitello said before Tuesday’s game that he had little beyond a basic check-in with Bader.
“My only concern with him when we talked was, ‘Are you OK?’” Vitello said. “He didn’t provide a lot of details to me, and [I’ll] let the medical staff and the front office sort that stuff out.”
The foot issue had already turned into a complicated situation before the scooter accident entered the picture. Earlier, the Giants said Bader was headed to Indianapolis to see a specialist for foot and ankle injuries on Monday as the club tried to get a clearer read on what was going on.
He still made the trip, but the team said the scooter incident “changed the nature of his evaluation” for the plantar fasciitis. On Tuesday, Bader was scheduled for an MRI “to better understand the severity of the injuries sustained from the scooter accident.”
It’s another frustrating chapter in a season that has mostly kept Bader off the field. He signed a two-year, $20.5 million contract with San Francisco before the season, but a hamstring issue in spring training slowed him immediately.
He tried to play through it for a few weeks before landing on the injured list, missed 25 games, then returned in mid-May and flashed some of the pop the Giants were hoping for, including four home runs and two memorable grand slams. By the end of May, though, the foot injury sent him back to the IL, where he has remained.
In 30 games this season, Bader is batting .170 with five homers and 14 RBI, with 34 strikeouts and four walks in 111 plate appearances.
The scooter accident also brought back an old and unusual footnote from Bader’s past. In college, he was suspended for 19 games from the University of Florida’s baseball team after a scooter crash in which he hit a curb and slammed into a pickup. A Gainesville Sun report from that time said police found the then-19-year-old unconscious and noted a “strong odor of alcohol.”
Bay Area sports fans have seen their share of strange off-field injuries over the years, and a few names still stand out. Former Warriors guard Monta Ellis injured his ankle in a moped accident in 2008 and was suspended 30 games after lying about how it happened, first saying it came from a pickup basketball game.
New Hall of Famer Jeff Kent had a similar episode in 2002, injuring his wrist in a motorcycle crash before saying it happened while washing his truck. Former Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt had his own run of odd injuries, once needing surgery for nerve damage in his hand after a barbecuing mishap and twice hurting his knee while playing with his children at home.
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