Speaking of the Bats blog, a couple weeks ago Ben Shpigel dropped this note in a post on Mets injuries:
Scott Schoeneweis has pitched the entire season with a severed tendon behind his left knee, near the hamstring, which, he said reluctantly, has weakened his push-off leg. Schoeneweis was loath to offer the injury as an excuse for his 5.66 earned run average and 18 walks in 20 2/3 innings, but he said that he is working on developing a more comfortable motion.This is interesting, and actually worth looking at more closely (sorry for the bulk-quoting, Ben):
"When I go to push off and my arm's not where it's supposed to be, then my velocity's not where it's supposed to be, and neither is my location or movement," Schoeneweis said. "I'm trying to throw like I used to throw, but I have this weakness and instability in the back of my knee."He might be "loath" to offer it as an excuse, but doesn't it sound awfully like a pretty good reason? What happened is he hyperextended the tendon while running in Toronto when his foot landed in the cutout grass above a sprinkler. He kept pitching despite the injury, and then this spring he severed it completely when his spike got caught in the grass while doing fielding practice.
"I don't get sick, I get cancer. I don't get normal arm soreness, I slip while running and snap tendons," Schoeneweis said. "That's how it works for me."He's either got an excellent sense of gallows humor or he's one self-pitying muthashutyomouth. Either way, that's a guy after my own heart. Even though he sucks. (The part about cancer isn't actually a joke, though; turns out he battled testicular cancer while playing Cape Cod summer league at age 19.) I don't know why I bring all this up. I guess it's never enough for me to say "this guy's terrible." I want to know why he's terrible. I mean, unless it's obvious.
1 comment:
In the words of Nick Smith, "He is terrible. And I shouldn't have to go into all the sordid details.
Post a Comment