UPDATE: Terry Collins has clarified his comments. Says he wasn’t mad at Tejada specifically. Just mad about injuries in general.
12:30 PM: There have been a lot of injuries in Mets camp this spring. And Terry Collins is not happy about it. Who would be?
But I do think that most people would chalk it up to stuff happening and not, you know, implicitly question the toughness of the injured players:Minutes after we learned that Ruben Tejada was scratched from today’s game with a left groin strain, Terry Collins charged through the clubhouse. Stopping a moment to field questions about the injury, Collins said:
“It’s not serious. It doesn’t have to be here. You need an aspirin, you’re off for a day.”
That could be taken as funny, but Andy Martino tweeted a few moments ago that Collins was angry and fired up when he said it, so that wasn’t some “oh darn our bad luck” comment. Collins is pissed that people aren’t playing through injuries, it seems.
Which is particularly rich coming from a Mets manager. The Mets took a lot of heat a couple of years ago for, allegedly anyway, not treating injuries properly. Now the team manager is strongly implying that either the players or the trainers are being overly-cautious about sitting out when hurt? In March? OK.
And of course it’s fitting that Tejada is the straw that broke the camel’s back here, what with him already being yelled at by Collins for showing up on time. How dare he have the gall to get hurt too?
I’d like to think that we’re past the point of “spit on it, rub some dirt on it and get back out there.” Team training and medical staffs are way too sophisticated to put up with that crap. And players are way too valuable too.
But I guess Collins isn’t done with it. He wants everyone to suck it up.
Well, not you Ike Davis. We’d hate for you to breathe in more valley-fever inducing spores and dirt. Which I’m assuming Collins think is a put-on.