Francisco Rodriguez was taken down by a cactus

Jul 21, 2013; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Francisco Rodriguez during the game against the Miami Marlins at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

There are a lot of dangerous things living out there in the desert, including scorpions, rattlesnakes and mountain lions.

Note that the above list does not include cacti. That’s because cacti are not normally considered dangerous. Only under certain circumstances are cacti hazardous to life and limb.

If you crash into one on a motorcycle, for instance. Or if you’re walking around barefoot and you happen to step on one.

But who would be dumb enough to walk around barefoot in the desert?

Francisco Rodriguez, that’s who.

Believe it or not, the Brewers reliever has been felled by a cactus. Had he been wearing shoes, his foot likely would have been spared. But he was not wearing shoes.

“They took out a lot of the thorns but there’s still some in there,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “I don’t think it’s that big of a setback but I imagine he’s pretty sore today. You know how little some of the thorns are and they break off in there. So, I don’t know. But that’s what’s going on.”

The next sentence shouldn’t even need to be typed by I’m going to type it:

Don’t walk around barefoot when the ground is covered with sharp and/or thorny things that can totally mess up your feet.

His nickname is K-Rod, not IQ-Rod, and now we know why.

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