In New York sports, this has been the Year of the Band-Aid, the Year of the Gauze Pad, the Year of the Ice Pack, the Year of the X-Ray, the Year of the MRI, and the Year of the PRP injection. Maybe earlier years have been as horrible as this one, but I can’t recall any of them being quite this bad.
If the last 12 months were portrayed by an actor, it would be Nick Nolte at the beginning of “North Dallas Forty” — waking up in his bed with blood from his nose spilling onto his pillow, grabbing his shoulder, grabbing his wrist, reaching for a bottle of painkillers and a warm Lone Star beer before settling into a scalding-hot tub with a lung dart for both a soak and a smoke.
It feels like we’ve all been hanging out on a prolonged injured reserve list, and every time we feel our ankle improve, our hammy starts barking, and every time the ache in our neck eases, we tumble into the concussion protocol. It never ends. It never stops. And it’s everywhere.
This little carousel of cruelty began in earnest on March 16 when Mets closer Edwin Diaz made a save in the World Baseball Classic, began celebrating with his Team Puerto Rico teammates, and ended up with a blown-out knee that would keep him out for the rest of the season. He’d be joined by a number of injured teammates: Justin Verlander for the first month of the season, Starling Marte for the majority of the latter three, and Pete Alonso for a crucial period in the middle.
And that was only the beginning.
The Yankees were riding along until June, when two difficult-to-replicate fluke injuries turned the season around. First, Aaron Judge crashed with an outfield gate at Dodger Stadium, disappearing for the majority of June and July. Then, Anthony Rizzo missed the last two months due to post-concussion trauma, which began in late May after Fernando Tatis Jr. collided with him on a pickoff play.
Losing your top right-handed batter is a negative thing. Losing your greatest left-handed batter is a bad thing. Did you lose both? That was the perfect prescription for what happened to the Yankees.
Oh, there was more.
Both New York quarterbacks suffered catastrophic, season-ending injuries. There was Aaron Rodgers, who went down on the first series of the season with a strained Achilles, and Daniel Jones, who ran for his life on nearly every dropback until he blew out his knee in Week 9.
The Islanders lost their best player, Mathew Barzal, for much of last season, and the Devils lost Jack Hughes for 16 important games this year. The Rangers have now lost Blake Wheeler for the rest of the season. Ben Simmons, the Nets’ one-man triage unit, has played only 15 games this season due to a variety of maladies.
Then there’s the Knicks. There’s no telling how the series with the Heat would have played out if Julius Randle hadn’t been hobbled by an ankle injury that necessitated offseason surgery, and they were also hampered by minor injuries to Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes, both of whom have since been traded.
But that was only the beginning of this season, which saw the Knicks lose Mitchell Robinson in December, Randle and OG Anunoby in late January, and a season that appeared to be destined to last until at least late May sidetracked to such an extent that it will be considered a win if they avoid free-falling into the play-in tournament.
It’s been a long run.
Or, more precisely, quite a limp.
In sports, injuries are commonplace. Everyone understands this. Everyone acknowledges this. Every team goes through them. Every season puts your coping skills to the test. Despite this…
Still. It feels like we’ve spent the entire year in the bathtub. And, as Bill Parcells so brilliantly stated, “It’s hard to make the club from the tub.”
It’s also difficult to advance to the championship round.
Vac’s Whacks
Maybe it’s just me, but St. John’s players have appeared to be really swift laterally in recent games.
It’s great to see the Globetrotters return to the Garden for the first time since 2018, and last week’s audience of more than 12,000 was their highest in many years. Keith Dawkins, the former director of Nickelodeon, is directing the brand renovation for a team that features a record seven women, including former LSU captain Alexis Morris and former St. John’s center Joey De La Rosa. The Globies will reach 100 in 2026.
Shouldn’t the regulation about court-storming be the simplest one? The athletes play on the field or court, while the fans watch from the stands. The players have no business entering the stands, and the fans have no business stepping onto the field or court. Period.
I’m very sure Juan Soto will go weeks this season without swinging at a single pitch outside of the strike zone. He’s like the anti-yogi.
Whack back at Vac.
Robert Lee: It looks that George Costanza has been assigned in charge of the MLB’s new jerseys.
Vac: Perhaps whoever approved that should have followed Costanza’s signature move and done the reverse.
Charles Costello: Maybe February is the worst month for sports. Personally, I despise the week in July, save for the All-Star Game, when there is no baseball. But even if you picture your least favorite month ten times worse, it’s still far better than waking up four years ago to the Post’s “No More Sports in Town” back page.
