Leaders Suck It Up…

Every time the Mets go public with updates on their core of injured players, usually another setback like Carlos Delgado’s strained oblique, it is tantamount to the water torture prevalent during wartime interrogations.

As Archie Bunker used to say, “Put a lid on it, Meathead!” I doubt Mets fans care to hear about another injury sustained by the debilitated as the countdown of this dreadful season is well under way.

At this rate, the Jets and Giants will be in Week Two when the lost plane-jammed pack with Mets regulars, returns to (Apathetic) CitiField.

Once an injured Mets regular is sent to the outpost known as Port St. Lucie, the information spigot should be clamped shut. If Omar Minaya truly believed Delgado, Carlos Beltran, and Jose’ Reyes were on the road to recovery way back in July, then he was duped, as were the fans.

Problem is, he is paid to have better info than the people following and covering the team. Unless he knew all along that these players could not play hurt but strung everyone along because he was not authorized to add the reinforcements needed.

Another sure sign he is about to be eviscerated.

The season is officially a punch line the moment Billy Wagner, out 11 months with a severe elbow injury, beats the “others” back. The other day, I witnessed from behind home plate (and heard his loud groan), Derek Jeter hit by a pitch on his foot at Yankee Stadium ll.

He shook it off, hobbled down to first base, and lasted a few more innings before he was removed from the field. Later Alex Rodriquez also got nailed with a pitch and stayed in the game long enough to score the winning run.

(I could use the example of many major leaguer’s gutting it out at some point of the long season. Not getting a town pool pass and sitting in the hot tub while their teammates fry under the August sun.)

A-Rod missed last night’s opener in Seattle and Jeter did not. He homered in a rout of the Mariners.

Leaders suck it up and play and losers take up permanent residence in the trainers’ room. The Mets have too many of the later and not enough of the former.