and this isn't even my anger at being at college for another semester:
So, you may have heard that David Wright suffered a concussion this weekend after being beaned in the head with a ball. Usually this is where I have a link or photo link of some sort -- but, yeah. So far I've been good with not seeing it (my cable was out for 2 days) in anything but pictures and that's the way I want to keep it. Well, of course, you know that something like this would catch my attention. Not only because there are moments (fleeting moments) where I understand why so many girls fangirl over D. Wright -- but because of the concussion part. I was so worried for him, not because his brains have been permentaly damanged --- but because he plays for the mother fuckijng Mets - who as you've heard me bitch for a year and a half now -- constantly found new ways to fuck Ryan Church up after his concussion through such means as not shutting him down after getting two within a span of a week (not good) or putting him on a plane ..... to Colorado..... and then bitching when he gets so sick he pukes and is light headed. No shit.
So, with all that as context for those of you who weren't privy to my bitching .... let me tell you -- I almost threw my fist through the wall this morning while reading the morning paper during breakfast. They didn’t put Wright on the DL. They didn’t call up a player to take his place. They did take on the Giants with 23 available men - Alex Cora was out with a hand injury - after their manager, Jerry Manuel, said he wanted to give Wright “every benefit of the doubt.”
The same benefit of the doubt the Mets gave Ryan Church last year while imperiling his career.
Manuel used a pregame news conference to give the not-so-dearly-departed Church some deferred parting gifts, and to remind his audience that “some people like to get back in there.”
The tone of the questioning by semi-incredulous reporters likely made its way upstairs, and voila, five hours later, the Mets dispatched Omar Minaya to announce Wright had been placed on the 15-day DL after team doctors conferred with a mystery specialist in a conversation that likely went like this:
Doctors: Do you think we should put our third baseman on the DL?
Specialist: You’re kidding me, right? Aren’t you guys watching the same SportsCenter highlights I’m watching?
The sight of Matt Cain’s fastball exploding against Wright’s helmet was the most disturbing Mets scene since Roger Clemens crashed his own vile heat against Mike Piazza’s skull. There should’ve been no delay here. No discussion. No debate.
The choice should’ve been clear the very second the diagnosis was in. Only it wasn’t.
“Let’s just say we take the route of the disabled list,” Manuel said before Sunday’s 3-2 victory, “which could be a safe route, but you have a guy that wants to get back at the plate.”
A guy like David Wright and, apparently, Jerry Manuel, who told of the time he was “hit in the head” and “knocked out” in Class AAA ball. “The whole thing with me was, ‘I’ve got to get back to the plate,’” Manuel said.
No, this conversation wasn’t heading for a happy ending. So with columnists loading up in the press box, aiming their laptops toward the easiest of targets, the story changed the way most Mets stories do.
A nervous Minaya appeared in the postgame interview room with two marching orders:
1) Keep it simple.
2) While keeping it simple, don’t even think of saying the words Adam Rubin.
Actually, Minaya was given a third play to run. He needed to emphasize that Wright was pressing to remain on the active roster, and that the Mets chose a player’s well-being over their own game-day designs.
“He really wants to be out there with the guys,” Minaya said, “and we decided to take it away from him….He tried to fight me. He said, ‘Come on, man, I want to play. Give me a chance.’…I said, ‘David, no, we’re not going to let you do that.’”
So the franchise was saving the face of the franchise from himself, a curveball on a fastball count. If the Mets don’t lead the league in anything else, they’re the reigning champions of rushing injured players out of the tub.
[.........]
The Mets are in dire need of outside medical opinions like the one they solicited from the specialist they refused to identify. In case the team needs a quick concussion refresher, it should check with the good people at the Mayo Clinic, who define such injuries as those that “temporarily interfere with the way your brain works. They can affect memory, judgment, reflexes, speech, balance and coordination.”
Every concussion, according to the Mayo Clinic, “no matter how mild, injures your brain.”
So David Wright -- team spokesman, clubhouse leader, All-Star third baseman - has an injured brain. Not a calf, or a quad, or an ankle, or a hamstring.
A brain.
The Mets apparently haven’t done much homework since Church injured his.
“I think when it was going on we talked about it,” Manuel said, “but in going forward we never had any session on what to look for or what might be different.”
All in all, Manuel showed bad form when he used his pregame forum to compare Church unfavorably to Wright. The manager said Wright “is made up a little different than, say, Ryan Church.”
If Manuel wasn’t trying to belittle Church, never one of his favorites, he had the funniest way of showing it.
“I would have to go back and say that, as [Church] was saying that he wanted to play,” Manuel said, “there was still some complaints about other things. Those other things are kind of what made it difficult.
“Some people can say, ‘I want to play, but I’m a little queasy.’ You can say, ‘Well, you don’t really, you can’t play.’…I think with Ryan there was always something thrown from left field - we needed to check that. And that made it somewhat difficult to evaluate that particular situation.”
Church could’ve performed better as a Met. But by treating his two concussions as mild head colds, putting him in the outfield and flying him all over creation, the Mets wronged Church far more than Church wronged them.
On Sunday, Wright was dealing with headaches and other post-concussion symptoms after his release from an overnight stay at the Hospital for Special Surgery. The Mets won a ballgame without him, then did the right thing by putting the last star standing on the DL.
Too bad their first instinct didn’t look as good in the box score.
The Ian O’Connor Show is every Sunday, 8-10 a.m., ESPN-AM 1050
My mother, who knows that I practice at the feet of the Tao Of Nowinski, had the response of: "Well, this is why you are a Yankees fan" when I was telling her all of this. Which, while comforting ... isn't really as helpful as one would think -- because I don't trust the Yankees to be that much better at something like this either (even though when Damon got his Yankees!concussion (different, thank god than the one he suffered as a Red Sox), the Yankees didn't pussy foot around and put him on the 15-day DL. Of course, that's assuming two weeks and a day is enough time to keep the swelling down enough).
In conclusion, I miss the days when I could make fun of Eric Lindros and not feel any consquences (which is not to say that I still don't -- because I do, it brings great joy to my black little heart -- but sometimes I do feel bad when I think about everything he's lost from his 15 concussions).
So, with all that as context for those of you who weren't privy to my bitching .... let me tell you -- I almost threw my fist through the wall this morning while reading the morning paper during breakfast. They didn’t put Wright on the DL. They didn’t call up a player to take his place. They did take on the Giants with 23 available men - Alex Cora was out with a hand injury - after their manager, Jerry Manuel, said he wanted to give Wright “every benefit of the doubt.”
The same benefit of the doubt the Mets gave Ryan Church last year while imperiling his career.
Manuel used a pregame news conference to give the not-so-dearly-departed Church some deferred parting gifts, and to remind his audience that “some people like to get back in there.”
The tone of the questioning by semi-incredulous reporters likely made its way upstairs, and voila, five hours later, the Mets dispatched Omar Minaya to announce Wright had been placed on the 15-day DL after team doctors conferred with a mystery specialist in a conversation that likely went like this:
Doctors: Do you think we should put our third baseman on the DL?
Specialist: You’re kidding me, right? Aren’t you guys watching the same SportsCenter highlights I’m watching?
The sight of Matt Cain’s fastball exploding against Wright’s helmet was the most disturbing Mets scene since Roger Clemens crashed his own vile heat against Mike Piazza’s skull. There should’ve been no delay here. No discussion. No debate.
The choice should’ve been clear the very second the diagnosis was in. Only it wasn’t.
“Let’s just say we take the route of the disabled list,” Manuel said before Sunday’s 3-2 victory, “which could be a safe route, but you have a guy that wants to get back at the plate.”
A guy like David Wright and, apparently, Jerry Manuel, who told of the time he was “hit in the head” and “knocked out” in Class AAA ball. “The whole thing with me was, ‘I’ve got to get back to the plate,’” Manuel said.
No, this conversation wasn’t heading for a happy ending. So with columnists loading up in the press box, aiming their laptops toward the easiest of targets, the story changed the way most Mets stories do.
A nervous Minaya appeared in the postgame interview room with two marching orders:
1) Keep it simple.
2) While keeping it simple, don’t even think of saying the words Adam Rubin.
Actually, Minaya was given a third play to run. He needed to emphasize that Wright was pressing to remain on the active roster, and that the Mets chose a player’s well-being over their own game-day designs.
“He really wants to be out there with the guys,” Minaya said, “and we decided to take it away from him….He tried to fight me. He said, ‘Come on, man, I want to play. Give me a chance.’…I said, ‘David, no, we’re not going to let you do that.’”
So the franchise was saving the face of the franchise from himself, a curveball on a fastball count. If the Mets don’t lead the league in anything else, they’re the reigning champions of rushing injured players out of the tub.
[.........]
The Mets are in dire need of outside medical opinions like the one they solicited from the specialist they refused to identify. In case the team needs a quick concussion refresher, it should check with the good people at the Mayo Clinic, who define such injuries as those that “temporarily interfere with the way your brain works. They can affect memory, judgment, reflexes, speech, balance and coordination.”
Every concussion, according to the Mayo Clinic, “no matter how mild, injures your brain.”
So David Wright -- team spokesman, clubhouse leader, All-Star third baseman - has an injured brain. Not a calf, or a quad, or an ankle, or a hamstring.
A brain.
The Mets apparently haven’t done much homework since Church injured his.
“I think when it was going on we talked about it,” Manuel said, “but in going forward we never had any session on what to look for or what might be different.”
All in all, Manuel showed bad form when he used his pregame forum to compare Church unfavorably to Wright. The manager said Wright “is made up a little different than, say, Ryan Church.”
If Manuel wasn’t trying to belittle Church, never one of his favorites, he had the funniest way of showing it.
“I would have to go back and say that, as [Church] was saying that he wanted to play,” Manuel said, “there was still some complaints about other things. Those other things are kind of what made it difficult.
“Some people can say, ‘I want to play, but I’m a little queasy.’ You can say, ‘Well, you don’t really, you can’t play.’…I think with Ryan there was always something thrown from left field - we needed to check that. And that made it somewhat difficult to evaluate that particular situation.”
Church could’ve performed better as a Met. But by treating his two concussions as mild head colds, putting him in the outfield and flying him all over creation, the Mets wronged Church far more than Church wronged them.
On Sunday, Wright was dealing with headaches and other post-concussion symptoms after his release from an overnight stay at the Hospital for Special Surgery. The Mets won a ballgame without him, then did the right thing by putting the last star standing on the DL.
Too bad their first instinct didn’t look as good in the box score.
The Ian O’Connor Show is every Sunday, 8-10 a.m., ESPN-AM 1050
My mother, who knows that I practice at the feet of the Tao Of Nowinski, had the response of: "Well, this is why you are a Yankees fan" when I was telling her all of this. Which, while comforting ... isn't really as helpful as one would think -- because I don't trust the Yankees to be that much better at something like this either (even though when Damon got his Yankees!concussion (different, thank god than the one he suffered as a Red Sox), the Yankees didn't pussy foot around and put him on the 15-day DL. Of course, that's assuming two weeks and a day is enough time to keep the swelling down enough).
In conclusion, I miss the days when I could make fun of Eric Lindros and not feel any consquences (which is not to say that I still don't -- because I do, it brings great joy to my black little heart -- but sometimes I do feel bad when I think about everything he's lost from his 15 concussions).