Jonny Gomes Denies Celebrating Adam Wainwright's Injury

February 23 2011 Last updated at 09:22 PM ET

When news broke of Adam Wainwright's potentially season-ending elbow injury Wednesday, early reports out of the Reds' camp suggested that the defending NL Central champs were celebrating the injury. The Cardinals figure to be one of the Reds' main challengers in the Central this year, and Wainwright has been one of the NL's best pitchers over the last two seasons. The Dayton Daily News reported that Jonny Gomes walked through the clubhouse singing "Wainwright's gone!" and implying that manager Dusty Baker was also celebrating the injury.

Gomes is now denying the story. MLB.com's Mark Sheldon says that Gomes was singing in the clubhouse, but that he was singing the theme from "The Karate Kid" (You're the best! Arouuuuuund!). Gomes told Sheldon that he found out about Wainwright's injury during an interview with Rob Dibble, at which point he started asking, "Is Wainwright gone?" He goes on to say that he's known Wainwright since the minor leagues and that he'd never wish injury on an opponent.

It sounds like the Reds' clubhouse was bustling with media Wednesday morning and given that the Wainwright news was probably spreading through the room like a high school cafeteria, it's easy to see how a mix-up could've happened. Of course, only Gomes really knows if there was a mix-up; if he was celebrating an opponent's injury in the clubhouse, it's pretty unlikely he'd ever admit it. That said, celebrating an opponent's injury is a pretty low-down thing to do and it's also incredibly bad karma on top of it all. Gomes may have been excited by his team's chances to return to the playoffs increasing, but it does seem pretty unlikely that he'd be outwardly celebrating in front of a clubhouse full of media members.

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