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Crippled Joba will leave hosp for months of recovery
JOBA CHAMBERLAIN is heading for home — but he’s a long way from getting back on the mound.
The former Yankee phenom is due for release Sunday from a Tampa hospital, three days after emergency surgery on a mangled right ankle that could end his career, the team announced Saturday.
A freak trampoline accident left Chamberlain, 26, with a dislocated ankle, a bloody gash where his bone popped through the skin and torn ligaments.
Chamberlain, whose right arm was once considered so valuable that it was protected by the infamous “Joba Rules,” hasn’t pitched since June 5, 2011.
He definitely won’t walk out of St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he arrived Thursday night after losing a frightening amount of blood in the latest hint of a Joba jinx.
Chamberlain was already fitted with a soft cast, and doctors said it would likely be months before the 6-foot-2, 240-pound pitcher could put weight on his leg.
He was recovering from Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow before his bad bounce led to yet another bad break.
The seemingly snakebit pitcher’s past misfortunes run the gamut from his attack by a swarm of insects during a 2007 playoff game to his 2008 DWI arrest to previous arm problems.
While few details have emerged about Chamberlain’s bi- zarre accident, the Daily News learned that an ambulance was dispatched at 6:14 p.m. on the night of the accident to the Boing! Jump Center.
The Tampa facility features floors made of wall-to-wall trampolines for kids’ parties and trampoline Dodgeball games.
Workers at the building confirmed seeing an injured man brought out of the facility on Thursday night.
The Boing! Website makes it clear that anyone planning to bounce on the trampolines stretched out across two rooms needs to sign a waiver.
“NO EXCEPTIONS,” the disclaimer states.
“I guess it could be dangerous,” Travis Thayer said Saturday before heading inside Boing! with his two daughters. “I guess if you get in the way of someone else’s bounce, someone could get hurt.”
Little Eric Gullo stood Saturday outside Boing! for his second visit.
“I was a little scared at first,” said the 7-year-old, who came with his older sister and grandmother. “But then I just did it, and had some fun.”
Chamberlain, who remained optimistic despite the latest setback in his star-crossed career, told Yankees GM Brian Cashman that he was hopeful of returning to the field by July.
Cashman, aware that’s an un- likely proposition, downplayed Chamberlain’s comments after visiting the pitcher.
“That’s the optimistic side,” Cashman said Saturday. “Obviously, in Joba’s case, it’s still a question of when he comes back.
“I just hope we’re in a position where he can come back.”
Pitcher David Robertson also popped in to visit his bullpen mate on Friday, as did Yankees manager Joe Girardi.
The pinstriped skipper and Chamberlain’s teammates were shaken by the devastating injury.
Chamberlain was bouncing with his 5-year-old son Karter when the grotesque ankle dislocation occurred. He was rushed to the hospital by ambulance after paramedics stanched the blood rushing from his wound.
The boy was uninjured.