Valentine suffers minor injuries in texting-while-biking accident

Dustin Pedroia, who missed Monday’s game against the Yankees with an avulsion fracture in his left ring finger, wanted to let his manager know that the he was feeling well enough to play Tuesday night.

Unfortunately, Bobby Valentine received the second baseman’s text message during an afternoon bike ride near the Central Park Reservoir. Valentine looked down to check his phone, not noticing that two French tourists had walked into his path.

Valentine swerved to avoid the pedestrians’ umbrellas but was unable to keep his balance, tumbling into a ditch and suffering bumps and bruises to his knees and hips.

“I shouldn’t have been reading a text while I was riding," he said. “That’s the wrong thing to do. But at least I was wearing my helmet.”

The skipper avoided serious injury and was in good spirits Wednesday, joking that, if Pedroia can play through the pain of a broken finger, he’ll be able to manage with his legs bandaged up.