Sports-Related Injuries

      One day during the 2000 baseball season, Washington Post sportswriter Tom Boswell was walking through the Baltimore Orioles' clubhouse when he heard a deep voice call out, "Hi, Boz." Boswell was surprised. The speaker was the Orioles' power-hitting outfielder, Albert Belle, who typically did not engage sportswriters in casual conversation. Shortly thereafter, Boswell saw Orioles skipper Mike Hargrove. Boswell told Hargrove that Belle's hip must have been bothering him badly. Hargrove asked Boswell how he knew. Boswell said the real tip-off came when Belle had said, "Hi, Boz." There is a maxim in baseball, Boswell explained: "They learn to say hello when it's time to say goodbye."

      As Boswell suspected, Belle's career was all but over. Within weeks of reporting to spring training with the Orioles in 2001, Belle announced his retirement. His degenerative hip, which had begun causing problems a year earlier, prevented him from playing baseball anymore. For Albert Belle, as for many professional athletes, the time to say goodbye had come all too quickly.