Shut Up Annie, The Sun Won't, I REPEAT, Won't Come Up Tomorrow

Ah, such a shame to see Marlins All Star Josh Johnson headed to the disabled list with a sore shoulder. I won't bother you with lots of numbers, but I'll bother you with a few. Johnson's 3-1 with a 1.64 ERA, tied for the lowest in the majors. NL batters are hitting just .185 against him, lowest in the league. That's damn good even considering how lousy NL hitters have been over the past decade or so. Hell, the Marlins cleanup hitter's named "Gabby." Like Gabby Hayes, the scruffy looking actor big in the 1940's.

What gets me is how reluctant Johnson was to tell anyone he was hurting. There's a Catch-22 in sports. If your injured you don't want to look like a softy. You'll look like a weakling to your teammates and a bad investment to the owner. But you also have to look out for #1. An injury could become serious if you keep playing. After all, pain is the body's way of telling you to stop doing what you did to cause the pain in the first place. Nature isn't stupid. But some athletes are, especially the ones who let themselves get worked to death and have their careers end prematurely. Then it's a case of Humpty Dumpty never being put back together again.

Remember David Cone? Great stuff, money guy, staff ace, a workhorse you can count on. Unfortunately for Coney, Yankees manager Buck Showalter decided to beat this horse into the ground in game five of the 1995 ALDS against the Mariners. Cone threw over 160 pitches and developed an aneurysm the following season that caused him to miss most of the season (not to mention it could've killed him). His career nosedived shortly after.

So here's Johnson, a guy who already had his elbow reconstructed three years ago, who missed the final three weeks of last season with a shoulder problem afraid to tell management his monyemaker hurts so bad that he can't even comb his hair. Bad for Marlins players, bad for the owner, bad for the few fans they have, and especially bad for him. Sure hope he has his nestegg invested with anyone not named Madoff or Wilpon.

Yes, the sun will rise. Somewhere. Just not at Sun Life Stadium.