SYNDER BLOCKHEAD!!!

I am obviously not a Mets’ fan nor am I a standard Mets’ writer - that’s why I’m obviously The NYY Writer, not The NYM Writer!  Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that I can’t write about the Mets once in a while.  After all, they certainly offer many stories for any writer. 

Over the Mets’ history, their fans have had a lot of grief - beginning with their winning only 2 World Series championships in the span of approximately 55 years.  Imagine if the Yankees averaged only won 1 World Series every 27 years, or so?  We would then only have 4 championships!!!

Anyway, let me try and focus on their most recent blunders and the main subject of this article - the Mets’ mishandled health decisions of their supposed best hitter (Yoenis Cespedes) and their best starter (Noah Syndergaard).  Over the past 11 years, one of my best friends (a Mets’ fan) and I have conversed about the Mets’ failure to be precautionary about their players’ health conditions.  Yes, the Mets have mishandled such health decisions for way too many years.  If you want to learn more of their past mishaps, copy the following link into your browser where it highlights the Mets’ botched handling of their players almost 10 years ago including Ryan Church, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Delgado:

http://www.metstoday.com/3785/mets-injuries/mets-injuries-not-bad-luck/

In most instances, the Mets claimed that they listened to each affected player.  I’m sure it has nothing to do with selling tickets - after all, they are not known to cut every spending opportunity they get!  Excuse me, I  just have to uncross my fingers after awkwardly typing the previous sentence.

I can’t blame a player for showing his desire to play; but, all teams still have to use their brains and try to do what’s right.  No MLB team comes close to the Mets when it comes to misdiagnoses.   Even some who have been directly involved with MLB have stated as such most recently.

The Mets first let Cespedes dictate his hamstring condition.  He pulled his hamstring over a week ago and, instead of placing him on the disabled list (which now offers a reasonably short period of 10 days), they rested him for about half of that and then put him into a game after he “said” he was okay.  Of course, during batting practice he grimaced on a swing - looking at his leg; but, the Mets weren’t looking; only the cameramen - apparently!  (You can’t make this stuff up!!!)  So, of course, when Cespedes hit a double, he painfully reached for his hamstring area and hobbled to second base.  Now, he will end up being out a lot longer than remaining days the 10-day disabled list would have caused.  If only the Mets were watching him during batting practice and not their wallets.

As far as Synder Blockhead (aka Noah Syndergaard) is concerned, his story is even worse.  He apparently told the Mets that his bicep hurt and prevented him from lifting his arm.  The Mets, including their General Manager, Sandy Alderson, “suggested” for him to get an MRI done, but Synder Blockhead told them that he knows his body better than any medical test and refused their “suggestion”.  Although the Mets have an MLB contractual right to enforce players to get MRIs whenever they tell them, the Mets were instead too frightened of Synder Blockhead, or just scared that they wouldn't be able to continue promoting his upcoming cap day (with fake hair attached to it to look like Synder Blockhead). Alternately, Synder Blockhead got his way again when he agreed to take anti-inflammatory medicine.  Then, the Mets avoided telling the press what was going on and instead chose to lie to the media/press about Synder Blockhead’s next scheduled start (a lie tied to one of their other starters, Robert Gsellman - which I'll spare you).  The following day, when the medicine didn’t show a swift healing process, the Mets had to finally admit that there was an injury - a strained bicep which would delay Synder Blockhead’s next start by another few days. 

Right after that divulgence, Synder Blockhead went into his classless act after the Mets’ VP of Media Relations, Jay Horowitz, failed to stop the press from asking him about his injury.  Synder Blockhead was so angry with Jay’s failure to stop the reporters from asking him questions that he chose to verbally humiliate Jay Horowitz in front of the press.  Life is downright awful when a ballplayer is forced to answer questions about his own health…poor baby!

Then, yesterday, when Synder Blockhead was slated to start his newly schedule game (against the Nationals) he deemed that he was healed and proceeded.  This was just another round of Synder Blockhead dictating his own decisions, as if the team had no final say.  The Mets already experienced his disobedience this past winter when Synder Blockhead refused to obey the Mets' request not to work on adding muscle over his offseason workouts.  He not only disregarded their preference, but he ended up gaining 17 pounds of it!  That muscle gain is something that Nolan Ryan's former pitching coach/guru (Tom House) publicly stated would cause Synder Blockhead an injury before early June, mainly because he failed to pitch during the muscle building mass.

In the first inning of his "okay to start" game, Synder Blockhead gave up 5 runs.  After he got the first out in the second inning, there was an instance following a pitch he had thrown whereby he grabbed under his arm for a second or two; but, the Mets failed to see it - only the cameramen (again), thousands of television viewers, and me actually paid attention.  Then, after he threw the next pitch, he really grimaced - this time, enough for their catcher, Rene Rivera, to ask for time and trot towards the mound before calling for Terry Collins to join them.  Synder Blockhead then exited the game.

Today, Synder Blockhead finally had an MRI (someone sure taught him a lesson) and was later diagnosed with a partially torn lat muscle.  Ironically, the point of pain for a bicep injury versus a lat injury is varying enough where it would be have been very difficult to be misdiagnosed as a bicep injury instead of a lat injury originally; but, these are the Mets!  One medical person told me that the lat could have resulted from Synder Blockhead altering his delivery to compensate for alleviating his bicep.  Who knows?  In any case, no single representative of the Mets' brass ever seems to be the one "who knows".