Does Ike Davis Have Desert Fever?
Mets first baseman Ike Davis is trying to come back from an ankle injury that cost him most of last season, but there’s now concern that he’s contracted a respiratory illness.
Then in May he ran into David Wright while both were chasing a pop-up, and what looked like a relatively minor ankle injury eventually cost Davis the entire rest of the season.
This season, though, he’s slated to man first base again.
If he’s able. Now there’s some doubt about that. MLB.com’s Marty Noble:
The Mets’ Spring Training camp has been open -- officially -- for a week. And thus far, Ike Davis has “done everything I’m supposed to do.”
Whether that statement will be applicable each day come April is an unknown that makes his manager and Davis himself squirm. Davis is not the picture of health. He has, in fact, contracted Valley or Desert Fever, a malady that can interfere with a season and even end a career.
His illness has set off no alarms in the Mets’ camp. Truth be told, the diagnosis is not a topic of public discussion or much private dialogue. But there is an awareness, and, behind that, a concern.
Davis said Saturday that the results of blood tests administered in New York 11 days earlier have not yet been returned, and that he has received no official diagnosis. But manager Terry Collins acknowledged Saturday the club is treating Davis as if Valley Fever has been diagnosed and the Mets are monitoring their first baseman.
Just to be clear, nobody’s at all sure that Davis has Valley or Desert Fever, so it’s not clear why Noble writes that Davis “has, in fact, contracted Valley or Desert Fever.” We should probably wait for the official diagnosis, right?
It can be a serious thing, though. As Noble notes, Conor Jackson missed most of the 2009 and '10 seasons with the malady.
This might be nothing. Or it might be something. Or it might be something pretty awful.
All we can do now is wait.
