3/30/2004 09:38:00 AM by Rob

More on Mark Prior

The sneaky bastards flew Prior to Chicago to get him checked out. If you or I get an MRI, we have to wait a week to get a doctor to read it. But Mark has already gotten his achilles and his elbow scanned, and one is bad and the other ok.

There is NO truth to the rumor that his arm is bad, and may need surgery.

But the back of his right leg IS killing him, and maybe guys have thrown through this kind of pain before, it really isn't worth it at this time for THIS guy.

When the supposed big fish of baseball net journalism, FlannelMan, takes it upon himself to compose the narrative under Prior's HOF bust, you can infer that any part of Marky's body that's sore is a big deal.

I was driving home from Door County, WI, a couple of years ago, on a Monday morning after the Packer game where Brett Favre hurt his knee. Their big radio station is 620 AM, the flagship home of the Pack, blah blah. Anyway, it's supposed to be a 24-hour news station, but on this day, there were up-to-the-minute updates from their practice facility, and, THEN, from his HOME, breathlessly reporting on the condition of his knee.

Imagine being Brett Favre, waking up that morning, probably still tired and sore. And, like most of us, probably sporting a piss boner. As he pulled back the covers off of himself, and as he sat up, preparing to walk to the john, he probably glanced out his window and noticed all of the local television newsvans parked in his driveway. He understood that a whole entire STATE was awaiting word of how his knee would feel as he stood up to take his first piss of the day?

In the world of sports, and I guess in the world of the world, THAT's power, my friends. As Prior wakes up each morning, and squirms out from underneath his fleshy, pale wife, to take his first short hop to the can, does he realize in his first wakeful thought that a whole NATION of Cub fans hang on whether he can walk to the toilet without a limp?

I'm trying to hang desperately to the notion that, once he comes back, he will hit the ground running, and pitch like himself from the first. Regular logic, and Cub logic, would suggest otherwise. But if he really is a future first-ballot Hall-of-Famer, I guess he's gonna hafta make with tha miracles.

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