Finally some good news this offseason for Mets fans – if you consider your first baseman losing a foot good news. Ike Davis will be available to participate in baseball activities when Spring Training rolls around, only, he’ll be wearing a wooden peg leg.
“I don’t want to step on any toes,” the slugger joked. “But, I’m still probably the best player on the roster.”
After missing most of 2011 with an ankle injury that progressed from sprain, to bone bruise, to micro-fracture surgery, the only thing left for Davis’ doctors to do was lop his foot off altogether.
Davis would be the first player since Jim Abbot to have a go at baseball without an appendage. The first baseman petitioned Major League Baseball to let him use an aluminum apparatus, but was turned down. When his reps at Mizuno heard about the denial, they sent a shipment of wooden legs to his Arizona home.
“I’m still getting used to it,” Davis said. “It feels okay, but I’m still trying to improve my speed, because with Murphy at second, it’s on me to basically cover the entire right side of the infield.”
The news spread quickly around the league, and left some medical professionals baffled.
“Leave it to the Mets to take a kid’s foot,” said Jonas Hammerstein, head of surgery for the Minnesota Twins. “A simple orthotic insert would have sufficed with ample recovery time. I think it’s time to get rid of the quacks running the show over there.”
