When the New York Yankees lost Oswaldo Cabrera last summer, they lost a sliver of their soul. Cabrera is a less-than-ideal starter, but a trustworthy stopgap and a perfect sparkplug. His devastating injury, on a freak play and typical slide in Seattle, not only removed him from the roster equation, but dimmed his light.
He fought valiantly against that reality, sure, showing up to the ballpark and smiling as soon as he was physically able. Still, he was the one rallying the troops so many times before. When it came time for the team to rally around him, they were missing the cheery face in the middle of the mob who could tell them everything would be alright and really mean it.