SARASOTA, Fla. - The term snake-bit, applied to anyone who has experienced a string of bad luck, is overworked in sports.
But with Randy Keisler, it fits quite literally.
Keisler, a non-roster left-hander in camp with the Reds, was bitten by a 2-foot-long pygmy rattlesnake while rehabbing from shoulder surgery at home in Tampa, Fla., in 2002.
It was quite an ordeal.
"I spent five days in the hospital," he said. "I thought I might lose my pinkie."
He was bitten on the little finger of his left hand while clearing a limb from a garden. Within seconds, his fingers were the size of bratwursts. His arm and shoulder eventually swelled up, too.
He called the hospital near his home.
"They told me not to come because they didn't have anti-venom," he said. "I'm like, 'Now, what do I do?' "
Keisler, with the New York Yankees at the time, called the team trainer, who directed him to a hospital 30 minutes away.
Four bottles of anti-venom did the trick. He feels lucky.
"It did some damage," he said. "It set my rehab back about two months."
Keisler was on the fast track before the shoulder injury and the bite. He started 10 games for the Yankees in 2001.
He has been with five organizations since leaving New York in 2003.
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