Ron Darling upset by rash of baseball injuries
SNY analyst Ron Darling poses for a portrait at Citi Field.
Ron Darling is as exasperated by the endless parade of Major League Baseball injuries this season as the Mets fans who watch him on SNY.
On Tuesday night, the analyst unloaded after starting pitcher Robert Gsellman left the game with an apparent hamstring injury that he suffered running to first base in the fourth inning against the Marlins.
“I honestly don’t know what to think, because I’ve never seen anything like it — ever,” he said as the telecast moved to the bottom of the fourth.
“You know, if baseball — and I’m not talking about the Mets — if baseball at some point doesn’t get these newbie trainers and get them in a room with some of the old trainers and people that took care of baseball players and how to keep them healthy and get them in a room and try to tap into some of their knowledge of how you train baseball players — not weightlifters, not six-pack wearers, baseball players — they’re doing a disservice to their million-dollar athletes that they’re paying. It’s a joke to watch this each and every night.”
Darling later added, “Obviously, all the injuries that are happening, there’s got to be a different way to train these athletes. I think they’re bigger and stronger, not necessarily built to play 150 games or make 35 starts. That’s a problem, but that’s the nature of the sport.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
