A quick post for today as I’m heading out to Citi Field for another Mets bloggers event.
Former Mets cleanup hitter (still can’t believe this guy was the opening day cleanup hitter last season) Mike Jacobs has become the first professional baseball player to be suspended for HGH usage. Jacobs took the banned substance to help with rejuvenating his body from series of knee and back injuries he suffered as a member of the Colorado Sky Sox . I feel bad for Jacobs as here was a guy who played in the big leagues, drawing a big league paycheck but flopped to the point he headed back to the bushes.
Jacobs was worried that he’d become just another guy and be forgotten by MLB GM’s even with his 23 HR and 97 RBI so desperate times call for desperate actions it seems.
To his credit, Jacobs has taken full responsibility for his actions:
“A few weeks ago, in an attempt to overcome knee and back problems, I made the terrible decision to take H.G.H.,” Jacobs said in the statement, a rare confession of doping in a sport where many players who have tested positive denied ever knowingly using a drug. “I immediately stopped a couple of days later after being tested. Taking it was one of the worst decisions I could have ever made, one for which I take full responsibility.”
50 games is a serious sentence and most likely Jacobs’ done as a big leaguer. Sad
The Mets have suffered from a Humpty Dumpty defense this season (All the mangers horses and all the mangers coaches, couldn’t put the Mets defense back together again, or something like that) Manager Terry Collins to his credit has gotten the team to participate in taking infield before games, which no other teams do, but as Andy MuCullough lays out nicely in this piece in the Star-Ledger, it hasn’t help much as the Mets are statistically one of the defensive bottom feeders in baseball. Add the lousy bullpen and shaky starting pitching it’s quite shocking the club is near the breakeven point in wins and losses.
Welcome back K-Rod, the trade the worked out well for both sides. Again, well played Mr. Alderson
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