An amazing story that’s part of an amazing TFC season

Toronto Star – TORONTO, I am sure this snuck by a lot of you for more than a few reasons but even if you have no interest at all in what’s going on with the TFCs, there was a moment on Saturday that you should appreciate.

It came in, I believe, the 77th minute of their 3-1 win over the Chicago Fire; Steven Beitashour was substituted in for Nicolas Hasler and one of the great comebacks of the recent era was complete.

It wasn’t two months ago – during the lone Reds game I’ve covered this year, a buzzer-beating victory over Montreal to win the Canadian championship final – that Beitashour suffered a lacerated pancreas during a collision just before halftime that looked hard but not dangerous when it happened.

And I’m not a doctor, nor have I stayed a Holiday Inn Select lately but a lacerated pancreas is not a good thing.

The thing that amazes me is that Beitashour shook off the injury, played the entire second half of the game and only the next morning did he decide the something was really amiss.

He ended up driving himself to the hospital where they did was could very well have been life-saving surgery.

Look, I’m old enough to remember well the tale of Bobby Baun and how he played part of a Stanley Cup game on a broken leg and scored the winning goal and that’s right a big part of sports lore around these parts.

Well, guess what?

Taking nothing away from what a gritty puckster did lo those many years ago, a dude playing 45 minutes of a high level soccer game with a lacerated pancreas and then going home before DRIVING HIMSELF TO THE HOSPITAL the next morning when he’d planned just to go to training is kind of incredible and at the very least equal to the Baun moment, no?

I had read She Who Supports Arsenal’s story last week about the chance that Beitashour would be added to the team for Saturday’s game and was impressed that he’d progressed that far, that quickly.

When I was perched on the couch watching the game Saturday and saw him on the sideline getting ready to enter the game, I couldn’t believe it.

I know the TFCs might not have yet captured the imagination and attention of casual fans – the fact they are now heads and shoulders better than any team in the league should soon rectify that – but this Beitashour story is one that you can’t tell often enough.