It’s long been said that sequels are rarely ever as good as the original. It’s an undeniable truth. Of course there are exceptions like The Empire Strikes Back or The Godfather: Part Two, but for the most part sequels genuinely suck, to put it bluntly.
No-Han was everything any Met fan could have ever hoped for last season and it surpassed all our expectations. And when it happened there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Some viewers were even passing out in the aisles, while most of them danced and jumped around them.
But the followup to last year’s box-office hit is already looking like a box-office flop and it could cost the team millions.
SPOILER ALERT!
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana is officially going to start the season on the disabled list. Worse yet, it may be months before he makes it back to the Mets rotation. The fact is nobody knows, the only constant is that he currently can’t pitch. (What about that whole WBC thing?)
The Mets announced that Santana continues to experience weakness in his left shoulder and there is no timetable for when he will pitch off a mound again – that’s assuming if he ever does pitch off a mound again. The critics are already weighing in and are giving No-Han 2.0 a resounding two thumbs down each.
His outlook is so bleak that he still is not past the stage of throwing on flat ground at a short distance and even that’s a chore for him.
“I’ve just got to stay here and work out and get ready,” Santana told reporters Saturday morning.
“I’m making progress. It’s just I don’t know when I’m going to be pitching again.”
I don’t know when I’m going to pitch again? This is more frightening that Friday the 13th – Part 6 only with less gore…
Santana, like all top-grossing actors, will get his big payday to the tune of $25.5 million dollars regardless of how No-Han 2.0 plays out, but that doesn’t keep the bad taste of it from our mouths.
The Mets thought it best to let their 34-year old ace rest up for three months after shutting him down because of a bum ankle… Make that eight months…
According to Adam Rubin, team doctor David Altchek says that Santana’s shoulder is structurally sound. That’s great, but if that were actually the case, then why the delay? And why is he limited to tossing only marshmallows at 30 paces?
“When I talked to him, he said everything was fine,” Santana said. “The shoulder is not feeling good or it’s just not strong.” Santana described his current activity as a “slow process.”
A slow process indeed and only getting slower… It reminds of the ending to LOTR: Return of the King – the longest ending in Hollywood history.
Now might be a good time to leave your seat and go grab a refreshing drink and another bucket of popcorn (extra butter) – this intermission is going to take a while…
The curtain is coming down quickly on Johan Santana’s 2013 season and it doesn’t look like there will be a good ending to this rotten tomato.
In short, Santana will not break camp with the Mets next week and the team is unsure when he’ll pitch again this season.
That’s too bad…
