LOS ANGELES – This was 11:30 Thursday morning. The Met clubhouse was filled with laughter.
Mike Cameron, as usual, was leading the fun bunch. He paraded out of the trainer’s room, and yelled across the visiting clubhouse at Petco Park to Pedro Martinez.
“Hey, Petey,” Cameron shouted. “They got you again. You got to come see what they did to you in the trainer’s room.”
Cameron then doubled over in laughter at the practical joke, which you can be sure he was behind. Martinez smiled and dutifully made his way to the trainer’s room, followed by a back-slapping Cameron.
Cameron and the rest of the Mets were ready to go out and have some fun in the sun in San Diego. In the seventh inning of that 2-1 loss, though, came one of the most horrific collisions in baseball history as Cameron, flying in from rightfield, slammed face-first into a diving Carlos Beltran, smashing into the centerfielder’s head and left side.
It was as if both players were crash dummies after their two cars ran stop signs and collided. It was harrowing.
“That is probably the worst collision I’ve ever seen,” said bench coach Sandy Alomar. Considering Alomar has been in pro ball since 1960, that is quite a statement.
“They hit so hard, both guys were doing their job, going all out to make the catch,” he said.
As the Mets prepared to play the Dodgers last night in the opening game of a three-game set, it was a somber and shell-shocked club that was set to take the field at Dodger Stadium. The laughter of a little more than 24 hours ago was a distant memory as both Cameron and Beltran remained hospitalized in San Diego.
The Mets have overcome some rough times this season, but they are lost souls now that the backbone of their team, Cameron and Beltran, are sidelined.
“It’s going to be tough to get over this,” said Cliff Floyd, Cameron’s best friend on the team.
The Mets may not always play well on the field, but their team chemistry is championship caliber. This group gets along better than most teams, but in one terrible play, the Mets lost two-thirds of their outfield. Cameron suffered multiple fractures to both cheekbones, a broken nose and a slight concussion, and was set to undergo facial surgery yesterday. He is expected to be out at least a month.
The rightfielder was placed on the 15-day disabled list, and Victor Diaz was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk. Beltran had a slight facial fracture and a bruised left shoulder and it is yet to be determined how much time he will miss.
Though Cameron’s injuries appear more serious, Beltran will have an uphill battle to regain his swing.
“When you hurt your shoulder like that, it can really affect your swing,” Floyd noted. “That’s his front shoulder when he bats right-handed and that is tough to overcome.”
Floyd was overcome by emotion after the collision.
“I could hear the crunch when they hit,” Floyd said.
When he looked over from left field and saw Cameron, his best friend on the team on the ground, motionless, he lost it.
“Cam’s nose was messed up, blood was coming out of his nose. His mouth was messed up. His whole grill was messed up. It’s amazing you could hit heads like that.
“I was choked up, I was struggling once I saw the blood,” Floyd added. “That messed me up. I was choking up, fighting back tears. Cam’s laying on his back, who’s to say you can’t break your neck?”
Floyd said he was so stunned that if the ball had bounced his way, “I would never have gotten it. I couldn’t move.”
The challenge now will be for the Mets to try to regroup on the field. That will be nearly an impossible task.