No tears shed for the pinkie

It's a vastly underappreciated and abused little digit among athletes.

Consider the latest case of decapitation committed against the pinkie.

Consider the case of Trevor Wikre.

Wikre, a senior offensive lineman at Mesa State in Grand Junction, Colo., injured his pinkie finger in practice. As he explained it to The Daily Sentinel, "My (pinkie) finger got caught in a jersey when I hit the ground. ... I felt something weird, but I didn't know what it was so I played the next play. I thought I had some tape loose. I pulled my glove off and saw the bone popped out."

A doctor told him surgery would be required to repair the finger, which would mean the end of the season for him.

It was his senior year, Wikre explained to the doctor. After that, his career was likely finished, unless somehow he got a chance to play professionally. Then he would be a former player forever. No more Friday night lights. No more Saturday night lights.

He had to play, he told the doctor. There must be a way. When the doctor said there wasn't, Wikre came up with his own simple solution:

"Cut it off," he told the doctor.

The doctor amputated part of his pinkie finger.

"If you love the game ... you do whatever you have to do to play again," he said.

Wikre will miss one game and then return to the lineup with a padded cast to finish his collegiate career.

It's just a pinkie finger, I can hear you saying. It doesn't have a lot of uses — you don't use it to point, you don't use it to salute people on the freeway, you don't use it to wear your wedding ring. The important assignments go to the other three fingers.

The pinkie is the last finger in line, the little guy who gets picked last, and it gets no respect. Even the names it's known by are insulting — pinkie finger; little finger.

So it's considered expendable. If anything goes wrong, he gets whacked. Remember Ronnie Lott, the great NFL defensive back? He injured his left pinkie finger in a collision with a running back years ago. He continued to play, but by the following season he was forced to make a choice: Undergo delicate surgery that would sideline him indefinitely, or have part of it amputated.

Lott had the finger's head chopped off, like a rabbit. Go ahead and laugh. Everyone rushes out to defend furry animals against slaughter, but no one sheds a tear for pinkie fingers. Yet athletes are to pinkie fingers what Henry VIII was to wives. Every time something goes wrong it's off with their heads!

Boxer Carlos Robles injured his pinkie finger in a 2007 motorcycle accident. The injury wouldn't heal and for nine months he was unable to box. You can guess what he did. Actually, maybe you can't. He didn't have medical insurance, so he did the deed himself. He placed towels and gauze on his kitchen table, wrapped soldering wire around his right pinkie for a tourniquet and then, well, here's how he described it:

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