Traina Thoughts: Mets TV announcer (sort of) threatens Noah Syndergaard
The best of the Internet, plus musings by SI.com writer, Jimmy Traina
1. Sunday was quite a disastrous day for the Mets and pitcher Noah Syndergaard. Not only did the New York ace end up partially tearing his right lat muscle after allowing five runs in just 1 1/3 innings against the Nationals, there was plenty of drama off the field.
Syndergaard had refused to get an MRI a few days earlier after experiencing some arm trouble. This led to an ugly scene in the Mets clubhouse, with the flamethrower getting annoyed at the Mets 70-year-old PR man, Jay Horwitz.
Syndergarrd's behavior did not sit well with the team's TV analyst, and former Mets pitcher, Ron Darling, who said during Sunday's broadcast, "In my opinion that is about as weak as it can get and hopefully that never happens again. Luckily, I wasn't there. I wouldn't take that."
"Luckily, I wasn't there." What does that mean? What that a threat? Would Darling have tried to diffuse the situation or would he have gone toe-to-toe with Thor. We wish Darling would've explained.
Naturally, manager Terry Collins was a tad perturbed by the Syndergaard situation.
2. This story is good, but it would be a lot crazier if his 2016 net worth wasn't $275 million. When LeBron James was in HIGH SCHOOL, he walked away from a $10 million check from Reebok.
3. James Harden has written a good piece for The Player's Tribune about becoming a point and his obsession with being a leader.
4. Don't tell WWE superstar Jeff Hardy that wrestling is fake. He got a tooth kicked out of his mouth by Sheamus during a match at Sunday night's pay-per-view event.
5. With all due respect to Maki Onuki of the Washington ballet, can a ceremonial first pitch really be called a ceremonial first pitch when you throw the ball two feet away from the catcher?
6. Giants slugger Michael Morse likes to give his bats pep talks. No big deal.
7. UFC fighters have no problem beating the hell out of each other and leaving opponents a bloody mess, but a rique video that uses sex to sell a product is out of line. At least that's the case with Paige VanZant.
8. I have to give a public shout out to the Yankees social media team. The team posts video of all the home runs that New York players hit on their Twitter feed. I've been stalking them to ask that they not post the audio from the TV broadcast, but to instead give the fans the radio version and John Sterling's legendary, ridiculous, over-the-top calls. I resorted to begging on Friday and they came through on Saturday. Let's hope they keep it up.
9. THE DAILY ROCK: Here is the The Rock's first ever interview with The Coach, aka, ESPN anchor, Jonathan Coachman.
