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          New York Mets

          Agitated Ike responds to oblique article

          • Adam Rubin, ESPN Staff WriterFeb 24, 2014, 01:42 PM
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              Adam Rubin has covered the Mets since 2003. He's a graduate of Mepham High School on Long Island and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined ESPNNewYork after spending 10 years at the New York Daily News.
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          PORT ST. LUCIE , Fla. -- Ike Davis loudly lectured the reporter on Monday morning who had written the article about him concealing an oblique injury, as teammates and other media watched.

          Ike Davis

          Ike Davis

          #29 1B
          New York Mets

          2013 STATS

          • GM103

          • HR9

          • RBI33

          • R37

          • OBP.326

          • AVG.205

          The first baseman then told reporters he had merely acknowledged having a nagging injury for a couple of months before the oblique finally popped -- just as plenty of other players during the course of an MLB season have nagging minor injuries they do not report because they do not want to be pulled from the lineup.

          Davis said his poor 2013 performance was unrelated to the nagging side muscle and he did not want to be made to seem like an excuse-maker. Davis added that he had no oblique symptoms at all in April and May.

          “If you hurt something, like your oblique and it pops, there’s a team in-between. It doesn’t automatically go, ‘Oh, I’m healthy and then I pop,’” Davis said. “There’s a time where something hurts. But you can’t go, ‘Oh, I feel a little something here. It’s a little tight. It hurts a little bit.’ I can’t pull myself from the game.

          “You made it look like an excuse,” Davis added, directly addressing the article’s author. “It’s an excuse. It shouldn’t have been a story anyway. … It’s just an overblown thing. Everyone has injuries and then they get hurt. So it was pointless to write an article. I sucked last year because I sucked. It’s not because I had an injury. You always have injuries. And now it just looks bad.”

          Davis acknowledged he never informed GM Sandy Alderson or manager Terry Collins last year. He added that he did not feel the need to clear the air now with them.

          “You can’t tell people stuff because you won’t play,” Davis said. “You always hurt. We always hurt. We play 162 games in how many days? You hurt all the time. Unless you can’t physically go out and play, you can’t say anything. So that’s what we do. And you have injuries that last a little longer or they don’t. Sometimes they never pop. I wish it didn’t. But it did.”