You have a promising career, and then out of the blue, you get sick. You’re not sure about anything, least of all your job. Your employer gives you time and tells you to come back only when you’re ready. 

You recover, but you never completely feel whole. Your doctor says you can go back to work. However, you need to be a little cautious. You can’t let yourself get that sick again. At that point, you go back to work. Your employer welcomes you with open arms. Everything is great. 

You’re a workaholic. You always have been. You come back working pretty close to the hours you used to work. Your employer is concerned and wants you to slow down. You only know one way to go, and you continue working harder than you probably should.  Your performance has been great. You love being back doing what you love. Initially, your employer takes some stuff off your plate. 

Eventually, they realize it’s useless, and they let you be you. Then it happens. It’s not all at once. However, you begin to notice it. While your performance seems like it’s the same, you know it isn’t. You put it off, but you eventually see the doctor. He tells you that you need to scale it back. You’re going to need to take some time off. If you don’t, you can get sick again, or worse. Your career might be over. Your ability to earn a paycheck forever gone. 

You tell this to your employer. The problem is there’s a huge deadline coming up. It’s the biggest project they’ve ever taken on, and they need all of their best people on it; that means you. They tell you they can give you some time here and there. However, they’re going to need more from you than you really should give. You talk to your doctor again, and while he can’t offer guarantees, he strongly advises you from pushing it. You tell your employer. 

Your employer is now angry. They feel duped. They knew the situation the whole time, but they began to count on you.  Earlier they knew you were working harder than you should, but they don’t care anymore because there’s more on the line now.  No, you’re not getting fired, but their opinion of you has changed. Your options are now to potentially risk everything and work or to take the time off you most likely need. 

Ultimately, do you continue working or do you protect your health?  If you honestly would continue working, and I know people that would, you can scream and yell at Matt Harvey. If you take the time off back off of Harvey. If you’re not willing to make the sacrifice, don’t expect someone else to make it. 

Personally, I once put off tests and ignored doctor’s advice because I was asked to by my employer. My grandfather was a construction worker who worked year round. My father was injured in Vietnam. He’s a DAV. They never took a day off. Who was I?

I worked in an office. I wasn’t putting together the Verrazano Bridge. I wasn’t wading in rice patties in Vietnam. I worked in an office. I ignored my doctor’s advice and the pleas from my wife. Foolishly, I thought if I change my diet or change the times I was eating, it would work out. 

I got through it, I was in severe pain each and every day. There were sleepless nights from the pain and the work. The busy time eventually ended. In exchange for my hard work?  I got to be one of the people at one of those fancy, expensive dinners. My sacrifice was never acknowledged. Im probably still not quite right all these years later. 

I was lucky to make it through everything without anything getting worse. I think of these times now when we talk about Harvey possibly shutting it down. The Mets don’t have the right to tell him to ignore his doctor’s advice. They surely aren’t offering him any financial incentive to do so. 

We forget he was rehabbing with Jeremy Hefner, who had a setback, had a second Tommy John surgery, and was non-tendered by the Mets. He remains unsigned to this day. You see the Mets were willing to pay him so long as he was able to pitch, but once he wasn’t, he was shown the door.

Should the Mets have paid Hefner anyway?  No. However, they should keep in mind if they won’t show loyalty to injured players, they can’t expect other players to show them loyalty. Harvey saw this first hand. He realizes he’s one surgery away from being ruined and losing that $100 – $200 million contact we all discuss. 

If he shuts it down now, he’s that much closer to collecting it. If he pitches, he risks it all. Go to Atlantic City with all your earnings, go to the roulette wheel, and pick a number. I doubt you’ll do it. It’s not the risk. Why are we now asking Harvey to risk all that money.  

Just because Harvey is an athlete, it doesn’t give us or the Mets the right to ask him to do something that could put him in harm’s way. Personally, I hate the timing. I’m disappointed. However, I also acknowledge, things have been getting worse for a while now. The same Harvey that wanted to pitch in 2014 and hated six man rotations now agrees to skipped starts. He leaves games with dehydration and can’t make the initial trip to Miami. 

I can’t prove it but something went wrong within the last month or so. I think it scared him. I bet Scott Boras scared him some more. He thought he was invincible, even after the Tommy John surgery. He remembers Hefner.  Maybe I’m wrong and he was convince. By his doctors and/or Boras to stick to 180 or otherwise risk potentially $200 million. He could be being greedy. 

The thing is we’d never accept less money in our jobs. We’d never gamble away or future ability to earn a living. We wouldn’t put our bodies at risk for our jobs. We need to stop asking athletes to do the very same things we wouldn’t do ourselves. 

We need to give Harvey a break and let him figure this out. Remember he still hasn’t ruled out pitching in the postseason. He just wouldn’t talk about it. You want to get angry?  Get angry with the Mets for not offering him some financial security to allow Harvey to pitch in October with one less thing on his mind.