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Teen Sues City After Softball Slide Injury


By

John Del Signore

Published Dec 16, 2009

Modified Dec 16, 2009


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By

John Del Signore

Published Dec 16, 2009

Modified Dec 16, 2009


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Today's frivolous lawsuit that will probably flush away more of your tax dollars in an out of court settlement: A Queens teenager is suing the city because she broke her ankle in a base sliding drill during high school softball practice. Francis Lewis High School sophomore Alina Cerda had to have six screws and a metal plate implanted in her ankle after sliding on a muddy base path during a May practice. You'll never guess who's fault that was!

"They were doing a sliding drill without any instruction," lawyer Clay Evall tells the Post. "This is not the Marines. These are young girls and you have to give some training." Outrageous, egregious, preposterous! Evall says coach Bryan Brown is to blame, because he wasn't supervising the sliding drill, and instead assigned some of the team's veteran players to teach the new players how to slide. (Apparently Joe Girardi wasn't available.)

Cerda's ankle twisted when her cleat got caught in the mud, and the injury benched her for the whole season. The team went on to a 14-2 season, and her teammates made it into the Public School Athletic League playoffs. "I was kind of sad not being in that [playoff] game," Cerda tells the Daily News. "I was upset not being able to play." Well, surely some big cash money can turn that frown upside down! Approached by a reporter after a basketball game Tuesday night, Brown said, "I can't comment on something I don't know anything about."

Tagged

ankle

Francis Lewis

high school

injury

lawsuit

nyc

queens

slide

softball

suing

teen


John Del Signore

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Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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