“I know the rules are the rules and I will accept my punishment, but I can honestly say I have no idea how a banned substance ended up in my system,” Mejia said. “I have been through a lot in my young career and missed time due to injury. I have worked way too hard to come back and get to where I am, so I would never knowingly put anything in my body that I thought could hold me out further. I am sorry to the Mets organization, my teammates and the fans, as well as my family.”
Jenrry Mejia
Yesterday I was on my way home from having lunch with my wife I checked the MLB Game Day alert that is on my cellphone . It alerted me that our current closer, Jenrry Mejia has been banned 80 games for testing positive for Stanozolol – an old school steroid that was often linked to Roger Clemens among other players of the steroid era.
Obviously I was in disbelief. If you seen my twitter account @lagranderusty you will see that I have vented at length about this. I mean how dumb could a player be in this day and age of stringent drug testing. How could he not know that he would be caught ? And no I don’t buy his excuse that he didn’t knowingly take steroids, I mean how could this happen without his knowledge ? Did A-Rod slip him a Mickey one night and inject Mejia with the drug just to get to get the blinding light of media attention off of him and onto someone else ( sarcasm folks) ?
All I know is that disappointment doesn’t aptly describe how I feel at this moment, I am livid because he seems to be a pretty grounded kid judging from the few times I have met him. I just take solace in the fact that both Victor Black and Bobby Parnell should be back in the bullpen barring some unforeseen circumstances, and hopefully when Mejia completes his 80 game suspension that he comes back and earns our trust again.
But right now I myself am not in the mood.
And with that said ….. HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!! Mets Alumni celebrating a birthday today includes: Mets catcher from ’06-’07, Brooklyn’s own Paul LoDuca turns 43 today. The last time I remember the Mets had a catcher that was as brash and demonstrative as LoDuca was you would have to go back to John Stearns in my opinion. Was he as good as Carter or Piazza – not by a long shot but Jeez Paul wore his emotions on his sleeve !
Middle reliever from ’11-’12, the often injured and mostly ineffective D. J. Carrasco is 38 today (1977)
Reserve second baseman/outfielder from ’03-’05, Danny Garcia is 35 (1980).
Sadly on this date in 2001 Nelson Burbrink – the Mets Director Of Scouting and Director Of Player Development from ’68-’77 passed away.
Other transactions include:
The New York Mets signed free agent spot starter/middle reliever, Ralph Terry on April 12, 1967.
The New York Mets signed free agent outfielder, Jesus Alou on April 12, 1975.
The New York Mets signed free agent middle reliever, Dyar Miller on April 12, 1980.
The New York Mets traded reliever, Julio Valera and minor league pitcher, Julian Vasquez to the California Angels for shortstop, Dick Schofield on April 12, 1992.
Mo Vaughn could never be mistaken for a player that used PEDs !!!
