I'm Not a Doctor

Matt Harvey has a torn ligament in his elbow. Tommy John surgery is the usual avenue to repair such an injury, but since it is only a partial tear, Harvey has decided to try to rehab it, instead of opting for Tommy John surgery.
This totally sucks. And we want to kick ourselves in the asses and say "typical Mets, cursed franchise" and I might agree with that. We have had Tom Seaver who was great. Gooden who was great and derailed his career with drugs, and now Matt Harvey.
Of course the fear is that he will struggle through one or more injury-plagued seasons before needing the surgery anyway, so why not just have it now?
I guess the thinking is that he can strengthen the muscles around the ligament to prevent a tear. And even if a tear is inevitable, maybe putting it off, would allow a couple more good years before Tommy John surgery and maybe lengthen his career at the back end was well.
And since Dr. James Andrews signed off on this, I'm willing to try this approach. The fear of course is that he will rehab and then tear it sometime next season, costing him 2014 and 2015.
There is a strong reason to believe Harvey will never be the same again, but there are also many examples of guys who came back as good or better.
Adam Wainwright and Steven Strasburg both had the operation in 2011. Chris Carpenter had it in 2007 and came back strong for 3 seasons before getting hurt again. AJ Burnett, Anibal Sanchez and Francisco Liriano are other pitcher who have had success post-Tommy John.

Harvey does not seem to be handling the injury, and the scrutiny over his personal medical decision, very well. Here's his curt interview with Dan Patrick.



I'm very familiar with these type of interviews and the arrangement is exactly how Dan Patrick described it. In this case Qualcomm pays Matt Harvey to be its spokesman. Matt Harvey does interviews to promote the product, but the agreement (and usually it's unspoken, as the producer explained) is that the player will do a real interview about all reasonable topics and the last question or two will be about what is being promoted.
Dan Patrick handled it well, Matt Harvey did not. He later apologized on Twitter as he realized his behavior did damage to himself and to Qualcomm.
I'm sure Harvey's image can recover from this, but can his elbow?

Oh No, No More Mo

Even as a Mets fan I am saddened by the injury to Mariano Rivera. He tore his ACL while shagging flies in the outfield during batting practice. At 42 years old and in the midst of what was likely his last season anyway, Rivera will likely never pitch in a Major League game again. In a crumpled heap on the warning track is how the career of the greatest relief pitcher ever ends.

There isn’t even a debate as to whether Rivera is the best reliever ever. He has the most saves (608), the best ERA (2.21), the best FIP (min. 500 innings) and the best WAR (39) by far. He’s worth nearly 10 more wins over the course of his career than the second best guy, Goose Gossage. Only 9 relievers contributed even half as many wins over their careers as Rivera did. But like I said that is a foregone conclusion. It’s more fun to compare him to starting pitchers. His WHIP is unbelievable, second only to Addie Joss. And that doesn’t include any kind of adjustment for era. His ERA stacks up well, but many dead-ball era pitchers like Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson and Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown are better. Until you adjust ERA for era. The career leaders for ERA+ (which basically compares ERA to league average and adjust for park effects) is 206. Meaning his ERA was less than half of league average for his career. Pedro Martinez is second, with 154. That’s a pretty big gap between 1st and 2nd all time. When you look at his individual seasons on ERA+ the numbers are sick. 308 in 2005, 316 in 2008 and a bunch of other years in the mid and high 200s. To put this in perspective, 150 is really good, 200 is amazing. He is routinely above 200.

And I haven’t even mentioned his postseason performance yet. He is arguably the great postseason performer of any player ever. 8-1 with 42 saves and 0.70 ERA in 141 innings. Against only the best teams. That is amazing. And all those great regular season numbers I just listed pale in comparison to his October greatness. Greatness we will likely never see again. Not from anyone else, and unfortunately not from Rivera himself either.

Thank You Web MD

There are a bunch of crazy people in the world who whenever they feel a tickle in their throats or a pain in their belly, immediately run to the internet, hit up WebMD and diagnose themselves with a serious illness. (It's never lupus)
I am not one of those people. Mrs. Poop is. When I came home from work Tuesday experiencing severe stomach pains, I thought maybe the macaroni and cheese I had eaten for lunch was responsible (Mrs. Poop made it a week earlier). But I wasn't puking up my guts or shitting out my brains, so food-related illness didn't fit.
Mrs. Poop came home and did some rudimentary tests, including jabbing her fingers into my side and watching delightedly as I recoiled in pain.
She encouraged me to go to the ER, insisting if it ruptured I COULD DIE!!!!!

Note: I write that in all caps because she said it in all caps.

I took another hour to reconsider whether it would be just bad gas, or something not serious that would eventually subside. After about 5 hours of intense pain I read the WebMD entry on appendicitis.

You have pain in your belly. Check
The pain may begin around your belly button. Check
The pain in your belly gets stronger and moves below your belly button on your right side. Check
The pain does not go away and gets worse when you move, walk, or cough. Check

The actual ER visit, which I dreaded, was not that bad. I was seen and evaluated very quickly and the nurse practitioner immediately decided I needed a CAT scan, though she wasn't convinced I needed an appendectomy. I quickly drank the liquid contrast (the thing everyone complains about) with no problem and was carted outside to a temporary trailer where they do the CAT scans while the hospital is under construction.

It was quite weird going into this huge tunnel up to your chin, then having to hold your breath. Then they added another contrast through an IV which makes you taste metal and feel like you pissed yourself.

When the results came in it was determined that I did have an infection, and the beginnings of appendicitis. The NP said since I'm in America I would just have the surgery right away. I suppose if I were in a country with socialized medicine they would have sent me home with a couple of aspirin.

They rousted the doctor who did Mrs. Poop's gall bladder last year out of a deep slumber and he agreed to come in and take out my appendix.

Meanwhile, this whole time I refused pain medication. Mrs. Poop was furious. She is a drug-seeker evidently. I was not in terrible pain, I was uncomfortable but I would rather deal with that than get some crazy drug that makes me forget who I am and what I'm doing in the hospital.



The doctor arrived quickly. I was prepped for surgery and the anesthesiologist knocked me out good, because I remember telling the guy who looked like Rob Reiner to call me Paul. Then I remember waking up in recovery.

The procedure went well, the appendix was removed, and I was 4 to 6 ounces closer to my weight-loss goal.

But I was starving. Remember, I had been in intense pain since 2pm, and Mrs. Poop warned me that I shouldn't eat, in case I did need emergency surgery, if I had been food free for 6 hours they could operate immediately. But now it was 5:30 am, 15 1/2 hours since my last meal, 14 1/2 hours longer than I normally go between meals, and I was asking everyone I saw to bring me something to eat. The nurses kept apologizing that all they could offer me was jello. I was like, bring it on, I love jello. I had two cups of jello, orange and red and I eventually did get a real breakfast as well, but it included a banana which made me lose my appetite.

Mrs. Poop was due to come get me at around 10am, so the whole thing from walk-in, to walk-out was only 13 hours. But it was 6am and I still had time to kill. They had pumped me so full of fluids so that even though I hadn't had a drink and my mouth was parched, I was still waking up every two hours to pee. With the help of a nurse.

In order to get to the bathroom I had to sidle (I was wearing a hospital gown, open in the back, with no drawers on) past my very angry roommate. Apparently he had some kind of open wound. They covered it up with a dry dressing, then put a wet towel over to try to draw out the infection. Well, he insisted the wet towel was introducing bacteria to the area and that he was sure to get gangrene. He must have read this on WebMD with the rest of the crazies because the nurses (and he asked at least 3 of them) all told him it was doctor's orders which they could not disobey. Later his wackjob brother came in and insisted the valets had rifled through his car the day before. After visiting for a few minutes he left to file a complaint with hospital administration.

Thankfully Mrs. Poop came shortly thereafter and brought me home. About 24 hours after the surgery I feel great. A little discomfort in the area where they poked holes the insert the instruments and remove the appendix but nothing else. I ate a pretty normal diet today and felt fine.

So while having surgery is not great and being laid up for a few days could be a problem for a lesser man, I'm glad I went to the hospital when I did. Thanks WebMD.

Success and Sacrifice

On a recent episode of NFL Films Presents I caught up with some childhood heroes as the show visited a retreat sponsored by Coach Gibbs, gathering every player from the 4 Super Bowl teams he coached.
I was particularly moved by defensive end Charles Mann. He said when he wants to be reminded about his successes in life he looks at the ring finger on his right hand, where he wears his Super bowl ring.


When he wants to be reminded about the sacrifices needed to achieve that success he looks at the ring finger on his left hand.

I Hope Carlos Beltran Was Listening

During the Netherlands-Paraguay match the announcer recounted the recent struggles of Robin Van Persie

"Van Persie is just getting his match sharpness back bit by bit. He missed most of the season for Arsenal with a ruptured ankle ligament which required treatment from a lady who specializes in rubbing horse placenta on the injury in Belgrade. I don't think it shortened the recovery period for Van Persie."

My Own Teammate

Florida Panther Keith Ballard swings his stick in frustration after Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk scores a goal, but Ballard whacks his own goalie Tomas Vokoun in the head. Here's the actual cut from the game.



Vokoun got a cut ear but as you can see in this longer clip they carted him off the ice on a stretcher. Luckily, he's ok and was able to fly back with the team.

Adrian Beltre's Nuts

Seattle Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre was put on the 15-day disabled list with an injury to a testicle after taking a hard one-hopper off the bat of Chicago's Alexei Ramirez to his groin area.

Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu said the Gold Glove infielder is out indefinitely, and could need surgery because of bleeding in a testicle.

After fielding the grounder in the ninth inning, Beltre rushed a throw wide of first base for an error. He winced in pain but finished the game, which the Mariners won in 14 innings.

Beltre does not wear a protective cup because he says it's uncomfortable.

How does a major leaguer, a third baseman especially, not wear a cup? A lifetime of wearing a cup can't be as uncomfortable as one shot to the groin.

I'm actually shocked he finished the game.

Staten Island Justice

The kids at IS 49 in Stapleton play (or at least they used to play) a game called "quiet." Everyone is quiet, and the first one to speak loses. The loser gets pelted with text books.
Chaz Carvalho was playing with his class when he said something and the textbooks flew.
He avoided some of them but one hit him in the side. He was on the floor in pain when the substitute teacher told him to get back in his seat.
Turns out the book ruptured his spleen and needed a splenectomy like Chris Simms.

Oh Snap

Gruesome injury for Clippers guard Shawn Livingston. He quite obviously, dislocated his patella and an MRI revealed tears in the anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and lateral meniscus.
He's out at least 8 to 12 months and may never play again, or be the same player if he does come back.