Encarnacion

Last month as everyone was busy comparing Rick Ankiel to Roy Hobbs, I went dark and compared the man supplanted by Ankiel -- Juan Encarnacion -- with Bump Bailey, the man whose freak on-field accident cemented Hobbs' place in the everyday lineup for the New York Knights.

I don't believe in jinxes, omens, or curses, and I don't even pretend to be able to explain the scientific nature of the whammy, but reading about Encarnacion's horrible, freak on-field injury has given me a serious case of the heebie jeebies.