It’s not been a good week to be a pro or college athlete, apparently,
Just days after University of Central Florida head football coach
George O’Leary said that college football players are ‘babied’ too much,
Hall of Fame pitcher
Tom Seaver suggested the same, saying that Major League pitchers are babied too much.
Speaking with the New York Daily News, the former Mets great
suggested that young arms in the league are being coddled by their teams
(inning limits, etc), including the Mets and
Matt Harvey who could miss the 2014 if he undergoes
Tommy John surgery.
Per Seaver, via the
Daily News:
“Naturally, I felt terrible for the kid. He’s got such a
bright future. But at the same time, all I could think of was how it
just goes to show how all this babying of pitchers — pitch counts and
innings limits — is a bunch of nonsense. You can’t predict these things,
and there’s really not a whole lot you can do to prevent them other
than refining your mechanics as (’60s and ’70s Mets pitching coach) Rube
(Walker) did with us. But one way I know doesn’t do anything to prevent
them is babying these kids like they do.”
A rival executive called it “surprising” the Mets dumped Tejada before setting their Opening Day Roster.
