Segura joins list of bizarre Brewers injuries

MILWAUKEE -- There have been incidents with salad tongs, scorpions and cacti. And another with a thick phone book during a motivational session.

While Jean Segura's injury from Ryan Braun's bat in the dugout Saturday night was scary, it was another in a long line of odd mishaps suffered by members of the Brewers' organization over the past couple of decades.

Here is a look at some of them:

Segura's injury was the second bit of misfortune for the team in this young season. Francisco Rodriguez stepped on a cactus with his bare foot while in Arizona for Spring Training this year, hampering his conditioning before the start of this season. He still was picking spines out of his foot last week, but entered Sunday 11-for-11 in save chances this year.

Arizona is a popular place for the Brewers to suffer unusual injuries. General manager Doug Melvin ended up in a hospital emergency room in 2013 after picking up what he thought was a harmless bug on his hotel room floor during Spring Training. It turned out to be an Arizona Bark Scorpion, which is highly venomous, and it stung him on the middle finger of his left hand.

Jonathan Lucroy missed two months with a broken hand in 2012. Lucroy said it occurred when a suitcase shifted in his hotel room and fell on his hand.

Chris Narveson missed a start during the pennant race in 2011 after slicing his right thumb with a scissors while trying to fix laces on his glove. He needed eight stitches and went 16 days between starts.

Salad wasn't a healthy choice for Matt Wise in 2006. The Brewers reliever missed a few days after cutting his hand on salad tongs while eating in the clubhouse in Kansas City.

Third baseman Wes Helms injured his right knee while slipping on a wet rubber mat in a tunnel between the dugout and clubhouse when the team was in Puerto Rico to play the Expos in May 2004. He missed 35 games. He compared it to walking on black ice in the balmy tropical climate.

Likely the most infamous of quirky Brewers injuries involved Steve Sparks in 1994. The knuckleballer dislocated his left (non-throwing) shoulder during Spring Training in Chandler, Ariz., while attempting to rip apart a phone book. The Brewers had motivational speakers talk to the players and two of the presenters ripped apart thick phone books to show what could be done with inspiration. When Sparks attempted it, he dislocated the shoulder, an injury that prevented him from making the team out of Spring Training.