Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days, I was dealing with some medical issues that had to be taken care of and will be trying to put out blogs daily from here on out. Something that has caught my attention the past few days was the trial in the death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. Matt Harvey, the former Mets pitcher and Angels teammate of Skaggs, testified and admitted to using cocaine regularly and supplying Skaggs with Percocet’s. The aftermath of Harvey testifying was the subject of people’s opinion and showed just how little people care about peoples who are suffering from addiction.

Living in New Jersey for most of my life, I grew up a diehard New York Yankee fan. I hated Matt Harvey. I hated the way he carried himself and hated that he performed well for a team I hated in the New York Mets.  But the past few days something happened that I thought would have been impossible 6 years ago, I started to feel for Matt Harvey. After Harvey testified, the so-called pundits and experts started to give there two cents and, in some regards, started to pile on him. Hearing all the stuff that was being said about him got me agitated. The so-called unnamed sources saying they weren’t surprised about Harvey and his drug use. Terry Collins, who hasn’t been seen or heard from since he was fired by the Mets, doing the media rounds disclosing the mental health struggles that Harvey was dealing with and that he heard stories about Harveys partying habits with the Mets, I felt was in poor tasted and frankly disgusting. There was not an ounce of compassion or sorrow in his voice and it felt like Collins used a tragedy and people struggles with addiction to get his name back in the masses. He should be ashamed of himself.

Shouldn’t we be taken Harveys admission of his addiction issues as a way to support him instead of piling on? Addiction is a very real disease and I feel most people don’t realize the severity of it. I saw people make jokes about seeing Harvey doing drugs and his partying habits instead of offering some help and support. The guy literally said his career is probably over because of his admission and people are joking about it. Instead of taking the low hanging fruit and bashing a man while he is down shouldn’t we support him in his time of need? Addiction is a real disease and people’s responses the past few days about Harvey just shows how few people actually  know this.