Reznet

Battle Scars at the Ballpark

By Sandra White Shield

DES MOINES, Iowa—Go to the ballgame, give someone a finger.

Literally.

Sherryl Grubb, the Iowa Cubs’ first-aid station attendant, said “finger amputation” is one of many injuries she has treated at Principal Park.

Grubb was on duty Sunday during the Cubs' game with the New Orleans Zephyrs when a man asked her to remove a tick—a "first-time-ever" request of her.

The most frequent injury is "being hit in the head with a baseball," she said, followed by "scraps on elbows and knees. … Ice packs and Band-Aids fix those."

Grubb, whose main job is at the Iowa Orthopaedic Center, said she has worked for the Iowa Cubs since 1993. She helps treat some injured ballplayers at the center.

Grubb said she has assisted some people who lost fingers while attending Cubs games. She explained how it happens:
People talk with their hands resting on the hinge end of heavy fire doors with their fingers between the door and the jam. Someone closes the door. Off come the fingers.

"Generally," she said, "it involves drinking."

Sandra White Shield, Rosebud Lakota, is a student at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. She is a graduate of the Freedom Forum's 2006 American Indian Journalism Institute.