Mike Cameron Makes History
Mike Cameron is one of 15 players in major league history to hit four home runs in a game, but on Monday afternoon at McCoy Stadium he did something that no man has ever done – he said he was thankful to have had a kidney stone.
“I guess I should rephrase that,” Cameron said with a laugh. “The blessing and the beauty of it is that it stopped me from possibly hurting myself even more.”
(photo courtesy of Kelly O’Connor)
After missing a game on April 15th, Cameron passed the kidney stone on the following morning and played that night in Toronto. But pain in his groin continued, and after playing in three games, the 37-year-old outfielder went in for more medical tests. Doctors found a tear in his lower abdominal muscles.
“I thought that (the abdominal tear) was just the soreness from the kidney stone, and it probably had been maturing over the course of time,” Cameron said. “Fortunately, I got just a little bit of pain where my body completely shut down on me. Otherwise I would have still been trying to play with the soreness. That stopped me in my tracks – my body said, ‘It’s done. I’ve had enough.’ I had to shut it down and find out what was going on.
“I had a little tear in my lower abdominals. It was like a piercing, burning pain that no one wants to go through – I don’t think any man wants to have any pain in that area. I’ve had to go through a lot of poking and prodding and everything else to get to where I’m at now, and I’m glad that’s over with because rehab is much tougher than playing baseball.”
Cameron has been taking batting practice for about a week and will be Pawtucket’s DH tonight in a 6:15 start vs. Gwinnett. Radio coverage starts at 6:00 on the PawSox radio network and pawsox.com.
Heard It From Hoard 
do you know if Mike Cameron will be in Pawtucket this weekend?