At some point during a football game, a player on your team is likely to get hurt. Maybe he will limp off the field on his own. Maybe he will have to be helped off by fellow players and the medical staff. Maybe he will need the cart.
If it looks serious, fans will first be hushed, then cheer their fallen player as he is carted off. In many cities, they will cheer a fallen opponent as well (in Philadelphia, not so much).
We are used to this in football. Even a player being immobilized on the cart is not as shocking as it once was, especially since, thankfully, the player is often able to give a thumbs up as he leaves the field.
But I am not able to get used to injuries in every baseball game.
Maybe it is just bad luck. Maybe it really is some sort of curse. But whatever it is, the Mets have to step back and take an objective look at training methods and handling of injuries.
After Jon Niese got hurt, he was able to stay on his feet and attempt a warmup pitch. And then he collapsed to the ground in agony with a complete hamstring tear.
I am not a doctor or a trainer and have no idea how the warmup pitch affected the initial injury. But the Mets have a bad tendency to minimize injuries. They delay putting players on the DL in hopes that they can come back quickly.
On another team, letting an injured player throw a warmup pitch would seem like the natural thing to do. And it probably was.
But it would be nice to be confident that the Mets’ medical staff was making the best decisions for the players, and the way things have gone this year, it is hard to have that confidence.
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