(AP Photo. There was a time when Jesus Flores was considered to be the catcher of the future for the Nationals.)
If you're not pulling for Jesus Flores to make a full recovery from shoulder surgery, you either have no soul or your name is Pudge Rodriguez. The latest excerpt from Chico Harlan's Nationals Journal Farewell Tour 2010 is a tear-jerker:
"Last year, after the season, whew, I was sad," Flores said, looking back. "Just me, I don't have family, I don't have nobody in Miami. Only, get out of bed in the morning, go to the rehab, do my exercise and my stuff, come back home, just reading and TV and PlayStation 3. Internet. It was lonely. But I was like, 'OK, this is only for you. This is your future, your work. You know, your job. You had to concentrate on what's best for you."
(Jesus Flores, via Nationals Journal, 2/22/2010)
Well, maybe leaving out the parts about "just reading and TV and Playstation 3, and Internet" -- because, what's not to like about those things -- that just sounds like a lonely, depressing existence.
But what's most striking is reading the damning quotes from Flores recounting his handling by Nats' medical staff last season:
"I was getting worse every day; I wasn't getting better. And I was telling them, 'Hey, I'm not feeling good. Something is in there, something is in there.' And they kept saying, 'Don't worry; don't worry, you're gonna be fine. It's tendinitis, it's tendinitis.'"
(Jesus Flores, via Nationals Journal, 2/22/2010)
Granted, Flores seems to blame his desire to return to action as much as the Nats doctors for his eventual torn labrum, but still, it makes you wonder...
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