Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Are The Red Sox Being Overprotective Of Bard?

Boston Herald Photo
When you read about the over-the-top pampering of Daniel Bard's ego, it reinforces the notion that baseball players are like endangered species—the 'snail darters' of the sports world. Heaven forbid we should build the baseball equivalent of the Keystone XL pipeline—we might damage a pitcher's fragile "eco-system". Bard has been pulled out of game action so he can pitch "simulated" games, while being gang-examined by everyone from team psychologist Bob Tewksbury to manager John Farrell. We're half expecting pseudo-scientific 'crystal healing therapy' next. Football players must be laughing up their shoulder pads. Can't we just put the poor guy on the mound in real games and let him pitch? He either stinks or he doesn't. All of this New Age gobbledygook is probably screwing him up more than he'd be otherwise. For God's sakes, just pitch.