April 11, Mets vs. Rockies

Long time no see.

Honestly, I wasn't planning on firing up this blog again, not even after the Wayner opened his first 2011 spring training broadcast by saying the Mets had just had "a tremendous off-season." I figured I had made my point last year and was just gonna let Wayne be his incompetent self without drawing any further attention to his many, many faults.

But just when I thought I was out, Wayne pulls me back in. Such was the case last night.

The scene: Bottom of the 7th, Josh Thole batting. He grounds out to Troy Tulowitzki, who guns him out with a strong overhand throw. That prompts Wayne to give us the following analysis:

That's the difference between a Jose Reyes and a Troy Tulowitzki -- Tulowitzki comes right over the top. Now, the Mets very early in Jose Reyes's career tried to alter his throwing style, because he's such a natural, coming from the Dominican Republic, and that's how he learned, is to throw kinda three-quarter, almost sidearm at times. And, quite frankly [pregnant pause], he hurt his arm. His shoulder. And the Mets said, "Just do it any way you want." And that's what Reyes does.

Now, I'm not the biggest Mets fan on the entire planet, but I follow the team pretty closely and am reasonably knowledgeable about the players, and I can tell you I have no memory of the Mets tinkering with Jose Reyes's throwing motion, or of Reyes ever having come down with an arm injury.

The Mets did once try to alter Reyes's running style, tinkering with his stride, because he was having ankle and hamstring problems, but the new style ended up giving him leg cramps, so they eventually let him go back to his usual running style. And they did once try to make him a second baseman, which was a fiasco. But a change in his throwing motion, with a resultant shoulder injury? That was news to me.

But hey, maybe I was just having brain-lock, right? So I started googling, trying to find any evidence of this throwing episode. Nothing. Then I checked with a bunch of serious Mets fans and bloggers to get their take -- none of them had ever heard of this supposed shoulder injury.

Finally, I checked with someone who I won't embarrass by naming him here, but let's just say he's one of the top living authorities on Mets history and goings-on. His response: "My recollection is exactly the same as yours."

So did Wayne just make this up? Maybe, although I think it's more likely that he's confusing the altered running style and the leg cramps with an altered throwing motion that was never taught and an injury that never happened.

Hey, arms, legs -- they're all limbs, right? What's the diff?

And so let the full-throated call echo once more throughout the land: Fire Wayne Hagin already!