ANTHONY RENDON makes good use of his cell phone (Flickr/Dinur).

Now, this is a tough one. Do we roll our eyes over Anthony Rendon’s latest injury, which will put him out of the Angels lineup for the umpteenth time?

Is this just the latest dodge from a million-dollar player who has expressed boredom with baseball’s long-season and assured us that the sport is “not his top priority”?

Rendon suffered a leg injury on Sunday trying to beat out an infield hit in the Halos’ latest loss in Cincy, their fourth defeat in a row.

Now, it does look like he was reallllly kinda trying on that play. On the other hand, properly conditioned athletes don’t often suffer that injury unless a) they are past their prime or b) only looked like they were running hard.

Now, I’m no fan of Rendon. I’ve seen more fidelity to duty among some beer league ballplayers. I suspect that if Tony heard Herb Brooks’ charge to the 1980 USA “Miracle on Ice” team that “the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the one on the back” he might have to suppress a chuckle.

But in this case, I think his injury might be legit. That’s because the Angels have a long history of eyebrow-raising injuries.

Most famous is Mo Vaughn, the former Boston Red Sox star who – in his first game with the Halos in 1999 – fell into the dugout chasing a foul ball.

In 2010, Kendrys Morales hit a game-winning grand slam but broke his left ankle when he stepped on home plate. More recently, in 2022, Angel relief pitcher Archie Bradley was running to take part in one of those low-intensity baseball fights when he fell over the dugout railing and fractured his right elbow.

So, maybe Tony is just a victim of bad Angel luck. Of course, maybe the Angels’ bad luck also extends to their selection of free agents.