World's Most Famous Right Ankle

. . . is Good To Go

Patrick Mahomes declared himself good to go, whatever that means. Good to go where? It’s sort of an open-ended saying. I am good to go to Party Source, but maybe not to New York to run the marathon.

Good To Go belongs on the same, vague sports-term shelf as Make A Deep Run. Meaningless, but saying/writing it makes you sound smart. One team’s Deep Run is another’s flameout.

They’re Good to Go on a Deep Run.

Anyway. . .

The sports world’s most famous right ankle is getting more pampering than a poodle at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. The fate of the world — and more importantly, the betting line — hinges on how an injury that should take a couple months or more to heal suddenly could only need a week.

Since I’ve become an ankle-injury expert, same as you, I can say this:

I have no idea how Patrick Mahomes can play football effectively on Sunday.

He’s not Tom Brady, the closest thing the NF of L has to a statue of Y.A. Tittle. Watching Brady negotiate the pocket this year was like watching Mario Andretti winning the Indy 500 using a Google map.

Mahomes needs to run. If he can’t, he’s not Mahomes.

I’m not talking about leaving the pocket with Sam Hubbard on his heels. I don’t mean calling his own number. I’m talking about the not-so-simple ability to create space in and out of the pocket, in the hopes that Trey Hendrickson won’t rip off his head and spit down his neck.

As stated here yesterday, Joe Burrow’s biggest stride this year has come in his ability to create time and space with his feet. There is a career’s difference between having two seconds to throw and having three. Mahomes is going to face that defining difference on Sunday.

If he were a pocket guy — a Kirk Cousins or a Jared Goff — Mahomes would still be a Top 9 or 10 QB. He wouldn’t be a 1 or 2. At his best, Mahomes is an improvisational maestro, the Coltrane of the NFL. He can’t possibly be Coltrane on Sunday.

Lou Anarumo will want to find out early if Mahomes has any life on his fastball, on intermediate and deep throws. Can he plant the ankle, or will he need his upper body? That’ll dictate what Uncle Lou does with his defenders. Down/Distance/High Ankle.

If Mahomes is throwing Tom Browning fastballs, maybe Anarumo drops eight into coverage, the way he did 18 times in last year’s AFC title game. Mahomes didn’t do well v. that in the 2nd half. Not at all.

Will Mahomes get injected? No idea, and it’s never talked about. When was the last time you heard a Doubtful-Turned-Probable player say after a game, “I was a hurtin’ boy until doc jabbed me with that 6-inch needle.’’

Maybe that’ll be Mahomes. Or maybe not. USA Today:

A steroid injection or cortisol injection is a no-no because both can weaken the ligament and decrease healing, according to Oji.

“Injections are contraindicative in these high ankle sprains,’’ he said. “You’ll get short-term gain but long-term it will be detrimental to the athlete.’’

A 2022 study published in Sports Health concluded, "Injections are commonly used by health care practitioners to treat foot and ankle injuries in athletes despite ongoing questions regarding efficacy and safety.''

Mahomes has lots of games left, you would think. Do the Chiefs risk that by using a pain-masker Sunday?

The Pain-o-meter has not been invented, so we don’t know how Mahomes will weather the action. It’ll be freezing cold. That should limit the swelling. It won’t help the ankle get loose. Mahomes could feel like Usain Bolt on that first possession, then Grampa McCoy (lookimup) after he has spent time on the bench while Burrow has the ball.

It all adds up to a colossal pain in the aspirations for KC. Mahomes was 0-for-3 v. The Uncle Lous before the injury. Now?

Now, then. . .

JEFF KENT MIGHT BE RIGHT. IT DOESN’T MATTER. The 2nd baseman was on theHOF ballot for the 10th and final time this year. He didn’t get elected. He wasn’t happy.

“A head-scratching embarrassment,” Kent told he San Francisco Chronicle in a text.

“Baseball is losing a couple generations of great players that were the best in their era because a couple non-voting stat folks keep comparing those players to players already voted in from generations past and are influencing the votes.”

Agree?

Me, too. I agree. Sorta.

Life isn’t fair. That covers a lot of ground. That turf includes Hall of Fame voting. It’s a highly subjective, almost serendipitous, inconsistent enterprise, run by a select group of human beings, none of whom claims to be perfect.

Kent had good numbers. As a 2B, he had fantastic offensive numbers. Most homers and RBI for a 2B, ever. Ever. Highest slugging percentage for a 2B in the live-ball era, ever. Ever. Almost 2,500 hits.

He got 46.5 percent of the votes. I never voted for him.

Maybe it was his average-at-best defense. Maybe it was his career WAR, nearly 16 points fewer than Scott Rolen’s, whom some don’t see as a HOFer. Or maybe it was that I never looked at Jeff Kent and saw superstar. I told you some of this is subjective.

Kent is at the top of the Hall of Very Good class. At least for now. At some point, the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee will see it differently. I’d be OK with that. I’m guessing most of the other voters who didn’t vote for Kent would feel the same.

PETER GAMMONS ON ROLEN, via The Athletic:

What made Rolen’s 2022-23 jump from 63.2 percent of the ballots to the all-important 75 percent so uncertain is the difficulty of defining exactly what a Hall of Famer is. Some love the offensive numbers. Some love Wins Above Replacement because it takes defense and the whole game into consideration,

KEN ROSENTHAL ON JIM EDMONDS: Jim Edmonds fell off the ballot after one year despite eight Gold Gloves and 393 homers.

Compared to Edmonds, the writers never laid a glove on Kent.

SOME GOOD REDS NEWS, AND THAT’S NOT AN OXYMORON: MLB, com says this about Reds SS prospect Elly De La Cruz, who'll likely be in the majors this year, sooner than later:

Highest ceiling: De La Cruz
In 2022, the Cincinnati star was two homers away from being the Minors’ first 30-40 player since George Springer in 2013, and he has the loud tools to back up the numbers. He’s arguably the best power-speed prospect in the Minors, and the only thing that gives us pause is his 30.8 percent K rate from last year. If he brings that down a touch -- or even manages to keep making enough hard contact to keep his batting average respectable -- he’s a potential superstar.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Carly Simon’s been bouncing around my head lately. Really liked her, more for some of the unheralded songs than the Anticipated ones. Such as this one.