No, not the SI cover!

OK, avid sports fans in Central New York and Pittsburgh.

When surprise star closer Jason Grilli turned out to be the cover boy for last week’s Sports Illustrated, don’t tell me that among all those yee-hah’s dancing around your brain there wasn’t a small uh-oh hiding out.

The SI cover jinx lives.

The famous second opinion came in from Dr. James Andrews, and the Pirates pitcher from Baldwinsville, N.Y., has a flexor strain. In his pitching arm. For a guy with an injury line on his baseball card that includes the infamous arm rebuild named for Tommy John. (For you youngsters out there, Tommy John was the Dodgers pitcher with the ruined arm, and Dr. Frank Jobe performed the career-saving surgery since appreciated by thousands of athletes.)

The 15-day disabled list label when this latest pain appeared in Grilli’s return after the All-Star game may turn out to be optimistic. The new news says he’ll be out indefinitely. No surgery, but rest. Plenty of it.

Uh-oh, indeed.

At least everybody got to enjoy Grilli’s excited dugout interview and one-inning of work among baseball’s finest before the notorious SI jinx clobbered him.