As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez will miss the World Baseball Classic and some portion of the ’09 MLB season as he recovers from surgery to remove what’s being called a cyst on his right hip. The Journal News’ Peter Abraham considers the circumstantial evidence ; “In a span of less than a year, Rodriguez tore a quad and now needs a hip operation. Can you draw a line from three years of steroids to these injuries? I have no idea, medical experts will have to determine that. But signing this guy to a 10-year contract looks like a decision that will haunt the franchise for years to come. They had a chance to be free of him and they let it pass.”
Dr. David Williams of Austin, TX is far less diplomatic. “Cyst is a nice word for abscess. I’m guessing that the ‘street name’ for the cyst inside A-Rod’s ass is ‘abscess.'”
So what’s the consensus about Mickey Mantle’s 1961 hip abscess? I’ve read online mumbling that his was an infection resulting from an amphetamine injection administered by one Max Greenbaum M.D. On the other hand, I’ve also read online mumbling that Jews are UFO-piloting lizard people.
Rob: I remember reading a comment in some blog a few weeks ago talking about “Dr. Greenbaum” and Mantle, so we may have been exposed to the same semi-coherent mumbling. The commenter only obfuscated the story by getting the name wrong though–it was allegedly Max Jacobson (amphetamine dealer to the stars and the bluebloods), who was Mantle’s connection. Unsure about its veracity, but there’s at least a coherent account of the narrative here: http://www.lvyankeefanclub.com/blogs/?p=165