The Columnists: Allen: Whatever happened to playing through the pain?

Watch in horror as the obviously still-concussed Maury Allen hands out THE WIMPINESS AWARD (also known as The J. R. Richard Award)

This is not to say the Mets are the wimpiest of teams. That’s just the way baseball and all sports seem to go these days. Get injured and take time off. Rehab in Florida. Play against minor league teams.

It just seems to be showing up more around the Mets than around any other team because of the blown pennants in recent years with nobody to blame. This year they can blame the injuries to their stars and soak the fans for those expensive seats again at Citi Field next year.

In another time players played through injuries because they had one year contracts, the competition for jobs was brutal and macho mania was part of the scene.

The Yankees of 1949 won the American league pennant under rookie manager Casey Stengel despite something like 79 major injuries during the year, especially the heel injury to Joe DiMaggio. He sat out the season until a June series against the Red Sox, destroyed them in four games and led the Yankees to a title. Of course, he had to play the last two games of the year with walking pneumonia.

The Mets last won a World Series 23 years ago. It is hard to imagine them winning another with their new history of chokiness and wimpiness.