Victor Delgado Injury: League Reaction
It was a perfect day for a ballgame, scattered clouds a nice cool 67 degrees with just the whisper of the breeze. The Sacramento Golden Bears were chugging through Spring Training with their eyes set on perhaps a Silver League spot on the horizon after this inaugural season. With their number one draft pick (18 Overall) they selected a young promising outfielder just starting to rub up against his prime. Victor “Vapor Lock” Delgado, all news from the organization indicated they were thrilled with their selection and why wouldn’t they be. According to some experts Delgado had the ability for an outside chance at the triple crown this year. He’s only 26 and even if he doesn’t improve anymore consensus around the league is he could be the face of a franchise for years to come. This didn’t stop Sacramento from what many thought a shrewd move in picking up another 1st round pick only a few selections later, which they used on Second Baseman Jose “Buzzy” Rodriguez (23rd Overall).
Everything looked good in Sac town. They had two cornerstone players with their primes just around the corner. Although like any high draft pick there are skeptics. Mexico City had taken most of the pressure off the rest of the league by taking an 18 year old in the top 10 an earlier favorite for the Sam Bowie award for the fledgling CBA, with this sucking up criticism from insiders around the league almost every other pick in the first round looked fantastic in comparison. So no one outside of the Sacramento area paid much attention to the 18th pick and that is just the way the Golden Bears liked it. They picked up what they thought would be 2 at least all star caliber players but don’t start to think there wasn’t risk with that reward. Victor Delgado came with a label besides that of team leader and intelligent player. He came with the label of fragile and it didn’t take long for the injury bug to rear its ugly head.
Back to that perfect day for a ball game as mentioned above, Delgado came in batting .298 with 1 HR and 9 RBIs more than enough for the Sacramento higher ups. In the 8th inning Delgado ripped his first hit of the game a stand up double to the gap. As he slowed in to second is spike caught in the dirt and he went tumbling down. This brought a rise out of his dugout as the players were quick to tease their star man by pointing at the “sniper” on one of the light stanchions. These jokes quickly stopped as his cries could be heard throughout the suddenly silent stadium. Trainers rushed to his aid but he hobbled off the field after only a couple of minutes to which Sacramento fans took as a good sign.
But after an MRI just hours later their worst fears were realized. It was announced that Delgado had sustained the freak non contact ACL tear. One of the brightest young stars in the CBA had been snuffed out for the year before he really got a chance to shine.
Support from organizations around the league poured out following the news:
Childhood friend of Golden Bears GM Ryan Davis, Mexico City Manager and GM Alex Romero said when asked “This isn’t something you would wish on your worst enemy much less an old friend. This isn’t good for anyone especially fans. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Golden Bears organization, the City of Sacramento and most of all Victor and his family and we are wishing him a full and speedy recovery.”
Florida Giants GM Bob Guse : “The Florida Giants organization send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to Victor Delgado and to Sacramento during this tough time. Yeah, this is a competition, but we are all human and part of the same baseball family. You never wish anyone in your family to suffer a serious injury so we all feel it. Victor showed well in his pre-draft workouts with us, and we know he’ll be back just as strong.”
Cincinnati Royals GM and League Co-Commissioner Jordan Barhorst: “You hate to see a player of that caliber go down before the games start to matter. Hopefully he has a speedy recovery and we see him back on the field soon.”
Dallas Devils GM, Manager, and League Co-Commissioner Kyle Mefford: “Always tough to see a talented player like Vapor Lock go down, but he is a resilient player who has had to fight his way back from injuries before. Not only does it hurt the individual team, but also the league when one of it’s premier players goes down like that. Thankfully it looks like the Golden “Teddy-grahm” Bears have quite a few guys contributing well in ST. We still view them as a solid contender in the inaugural season.”
ACL tears are finicky injuries they pop up out of nowhere and often times involve no contact. Some players are never the same ie. Derek Rose, Teddy Bridgwater and Kyle Schwarber but many make full recoveries such as Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Adrian Petersen, and Shaun Livingston to name a few. Only time will tell and let me be the first to say that Delgado is my front runner for comeback player of the year next season.
I have reached out to Sacramento for a statement on the injury, none has been made as of yet but this article will be edited as that information becomes available.
