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I was jogging last night in a loop around downtown San Diego. When I rounded the ballpark going west on J street I saw a familiar face appear in the gloaming. Honestly, there's not many Padres player's faces I'd recognize off of the field. This face and well manicured beard I did know. It was Padres third basemen Chase Headley.
He was walking with crutches. He was clearly recovering from knee surgery the morning before. He had been able to keep his knee injury a secret all year long from the public, but he couldn't hide his first rehab steps even under the cover of darkness from my watchful eyes. No, sir.
He's a big dude, a large male specimen, with broad shoulders and arms thicker than my legs. It's always a surprise to see professional athletes up close, they look so much different than you or me. As powerful as he looked, he limped feebly and slowly towards me on his crutches as I bounded gracefully and effortlessly towards him and his two companions. From 15 yards out I yelled "Hey Chase! How you feelin'?"
As I passed, he responded in a somewhat forced sounding upbeat voice "I'm doing good."
I never broke stride as I passed him and turned north up 8th Avenue. He turned his head as I passed and jealously admired my gait.
When I got back to my car I thought, I'd better tweet his progress to his fan base and mine. You should follow us, if you don't already so you can read about these gripping news stories as they happen instead of 15 hours later when I get around to blogging them.
Jogging downtown and saw #Padres 3B Chase Headley on crutches outside the park. He said he was feeling good after surgery when I asked
— Gaslamp Ball (@gaslampball) October 3, 2013
I'm hoping to see Tyson Ross recovering from shoulder surgery tonight while I'm rowing a boat or something.