People laughed when the St. Louis Cardinals signed Lance Berkman to play the outfield. He was 35 years old! He was Lance Berkman! His name was Lance Berkman, which isn't an athletic name! It didn't seem to make great sense. Berkman responded by posting a .959 OPS over 145 games and the Cardinals won the World Series.

In 2012, Berkman moved to first base to replace the departed Albert Pujols. It figures that Outfield Lance Berkman would stay healthy, and First Base Lance Berkman would quickly run into injury trouble.

Berkman was recently day-to-day with a calf injury. He recently drew back into the lineup, and he subsequently aggravated his calf injury. Now he's going to get an extended break:

Schumaker will join team in Pittsburgh if he comes out of Memphis game ok. Berkman to DL to make room for him, per Mozeliak. #STLcards

— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) April 19, 2012

Not a surprise. Berkman's getting up there in years, and calf injuries linger if you don't let them heal. Berkman's important enough to the Cardinals that they'd rather lose him for a little while now than have him deal with discomfort all season long.

With Berkman out, Matt Carpenter will presumably fill in at first base. Matt Carpenter is not a carpenter, but he's capable of doing impressive things with wood, as he's batted 9-for-24 so far with five extra-base hits. I just made up that wood line by the way. Carpenter doesn't have a lot of big-league experience but he has an .880 OPS in triple-A, so the Cardinals will survive. Berkman makes them better, but Berkman doesn't make them good. They're already good without him.