This offseason there was a lot of talk about players not wanting to come to the Mets. Â The medical staff was sometimes cited as a reason why players may not want to come here. Â That, like most of the “Kill the Mets” type articles out there this offseason, was probably completely fabricated.
Minnesota Twins closer Joe Nathan will be having Tommy John surgery on Friday.  Given all the doctors in the world a professional athlete has to pick from, chances are he’s going to pick someone highly praised.  The doctor performing Nathan’s surgery will be none other than the New York Mets own Dr. David Altchek.  It gets even better: Altchek comes recommended by former Yankee Carl Pavano, who performed the same operation on him while he was a New York Yankee.  Pavano opted for Altchek over the Yankees own doctor, an Angels doctor, and Dr. James Andrew.
I know it’s in vogue to mock the Mets doctors, and the jokes can be quite funny, but the truth is players around the league respect the Mets doctors.
18 comments
gipperpdx
3/23/2010-9:57pm at 9:57 pm (UTC -4)
No doubt some of the rhetoric was overblown, but there definitely have been some screw-ups. The handling of Church and flying him across the country post-concussion, for example. I think it was understandable after last year for people to demand some accountability and for those same people to be disappointed there were no changes made to the training or medical staffs.
ceetar
3/23/2010-10:07pm at 10:07 pm (UTC -4)
For sure, there were issues, and many of them were of the communication kind. The doctors themselves are not the problem.
gipperpdx
3/24/2010-2:20am at 2:20 am (UTC -4)
Oh, it could well be just an FO issue more than anything else…but there was no accountability there either!
GravediggerHebner
3/23/2010-10:08pm at 10:08 pm (UTC -4)
I don’t think anyone with any depth of intelligence or depth of understanding mocked the Mets doctors, I think they mocked what the Mets did or didn’t do with the information they received from the doctors and how they did or didn’t do what they did or didn’t do.
I sure didn’t mock him. He’s from my home town. I know this will sound like “I have a friend who has a friend who said” but when I was a teenager David Altchek, medical student, dated the older sister of my best friend. I hung out with him a few times at dinners and parties. No one liked him very much, we all liked Carol’s previous boyfriend (also now a doctor, with whom she eventually reunited, married and had many kids).
Here’s a couple of years old article about Altchek from my hometown paper. You can get a sense of the smugness that turned me off to him 30 years ago.
Also it’s probably just a coincidence but Nathan is from the next town over, Pine Bush which is about 5 miles away. Every Sunday during the season this same local paper publishes a brief overview about how all our “local boys” are doing in professional ball. Nathan was the big kahuna, he will be missed in this summer’s articles.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070807/SPORTS/708070328
metsfan4decades
3/23/2010-10:52pm at 10:52 pm (UTC -4)
Interesting. I guess no one could accuse Dr. Altchek of not being confident…..
gategem
3/24/2010-1:34am at 1:34 am (UTC -4)
Too bad he wasn’t a neurosurgeon.
metsfan4decades
3/23/2010-10:46pm at 10:46 pm (UTC -4)
And there you have it….
I don’t think the problem was the Met doctors, per say. I keep going back to an interview the SNY booth did during a game one night with Omar in the summer of ’09. Gary was asking him, given all the injuries, diagnoses changing, etc., where do the Mets stand on all that?
Omar replied something to the effect of they have the best of the best in the HFSS, the highly respected Met doctors and the trainers and have the utmost confidence in them. Then his next statement was along the lines of ‘you know, we have to weigh the medical advice against having our good players on the DL for extended periods of time.’
Well, that just about said it all to me. Made me think of Beltran taking a cortisone shot and taking the field 4 days later. Or Jose being listed as day to day for close to 2 weeks before they finally put him on the DL. Or Church on a plane for a road trip days after a second concussion.
Something tells me the doctors were never the main problem.
metsfan4decades
3/23/2010-11:10pm at 11:10 pm (UTC -4)
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/bitterbill/2010/03/is-reyes-recovery-a-sign.html
So is this the DUDE picking up the slack for Adam Rubin’s departure at the Daily News? Man, I certainly hope not.
- I think it’s unprofessional for any beat writer to refer to the team he’s covering as ‘we’.
- He tears into Murphy referring to him as ‘dude’.
- He then proceeds to tear into ‘Shawn’ Green. Shawn? Least he could do is get his name right.
- He refers to today’s game as yesterday. (Makes me wonder if he even watched any of the game.)
- He refers to Mejia as ‘dude’ also, while commenting “he’s the best reliever ‘we’ have not named KRod. Let’s put him in the 8th inning and stop messing around.”
- And my personal favorite when referring to the news on Reyes today: “The old saying goes that if something is too good to be true, it usually is.”
I could almost understand this style if this was a blog guy starting out at somewhere around the age of 22. However, he must be in his mid to late 30s.
Maybe it’s me showing my age but….bring back Adam Rubin.
Kingman 26
3/23/2010-11:15pm at 11:15 pm (UTC -4)
Can we bring back Dan Castellano?
Remember him MF4D?
metsfan4decades
3/24/2010-10:46am at 10:46 am (UTC -4)
I sure do. The Star Ledger used to be my one of my only sources of Met info back in the day….
Kingman 26
3/23/2010-11:20pm at 11:20 pm (UTC -4)
LOL! Just read that, and it seemed like it was writen for a high school paper, by one of Cerrone’s Best and Brightest!
Wow, how low can the media sink?
Too funny, really…..
gategem
3/24/2010-1:49am at 1:49 am (UTC -4)
“Bill Price has been an associate sports editor at the News since 1998. He lives in Central Jersey with his wife and two kids, who get to spend time with him when there are no sports on TV.”
It was obvious he lives in New Jersey.
trs86
3/24/2010-7:26am at 7:26 am (UTC -4)
Man, I think they just hired MC? Nah can’t be, this guy actually does use periods one at a time.
trs86
3/24/2010-7:27am at 7:27 am (UTC -4)
I honestly think anyone of our authors here could do a better job.
Kingman 26
3/23/2010-11:17pm at 11:17 pm (UTC -4)
“That, like most of the “Kill the Mets†type articles out there this offseason, was probably completely fabricated.”
I really appreciate it when people write things like this.
And will Buster Olney face any consequences for his completely obviously fabricated ridiculous nonsense about Pujols-for-Howard, which annoyed both teams and got Buster the Pathological Liar in the headlines?
stickguy
3/24/2010-7:42am at 7:42 am (UTC -4)
I had XM on this morning, and they (seth davis and Jim duquette) actually mentioned this. it was in the context of smaller market (or revenue) teams signing their big stars (started as a discussion of Mauer deal, and the Marlins needing to keep Hanley).
Turned to Pujols, and what kind of contract he would demand. When A Rod $$ was put on the table, Davis said no way the Cards would go there.
So, his logical solution? They bring home town boy Howard back! With Pujols becoming an option for the Phils (which I don’t see). But, they left it as even if the trade was not discussed, it should be (something along those lines).
trs86
3/24/2010-8:35am at 8:35 am (UTC -4)
How the hell would the Phillies even afford Pujols unless they gutted their team?
Mr North Jersey
3/23/2010-11:37pm at 11:37 pm (UTC -4)
Cool looking duck