Baseball
Brandon Inge Sidelined by a Bedroom Pillow
By Mark Umbach

Jun 30, 2008

Brandon Inge

He wears a facemask to protect himself from 95 mph fastballs. He wears shin guards to protect his legs from cuts and bruises of falling to the ground. He wears chest pads to stop those bad hops, not to mention the 200 lbs. men that come barreling toward him from the third base line. But all that equipment couldn’t protect Detroit Tigers’ catcher Brandon Inge from his big bad bedroom pillows!  

Inge and his wife have a 3-year-old son who, like most kids that age, likes to sleep in the bed with his parents. Unfortunately, as he was trying to help his son get comfortable with his pillows, Inge fluffed a little too hard and aggravated a pulled oblique muscle. Inge initially damaged the muscle in a June 1, 7-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners.  

Inge now goes on the 15-day DL retroactive back to June 23.  

"It was the stupidest, freakiest thing," Inge said.  

His manager, Jim Leyland, seems to agree saying, “That is a first.”  

The 31-year-old Inge has been starting every other game behind Tigers star catcher Pudge Rodriguez. Additionally, Inge played third base and outfield this season. In 52 games this season, he is currently batting .215 with six home runs, 23 RBIs and 19 runs scored.  

Detroit has called up catcher Dane Sardinha from the triple-A Toledo Mudhens for the time being.