SAN DIEGO — A late-night scooter accident, the details of which remain hazy, will be the lasting memory of Harrison Bader’s otherwise forgettable first season in San Francisco.
Despite indicating otherwise just last week, manager Tony Vitello confirmed Thursday afternoon that the offseason free-agent addition had played his final game this season.
“I think that would have been a longshot to begin with,” Vitello said of Bader’s chances of returning this season after he crashed his scooter in the wee hours Sunday morning in one of San Francisco’s premier nightlight districts.
The 32-year-old center fielder had been limited to only 30 games in his first season since signing a two-year, $20 million contract with the Giants this past offseason. He was first sidelined by a hamstring strain but more recently has been dealing with plantar fasciitis.
Bader, who hasn’t appeared in a game since May 29, was scheduled to fly to Indianapolis to see a specialist for the persistent issue with his left foot. On Friday, Vitello said Bader was “frustrated” by “some setbacks” that had stalled his rehab efforts.
Before he could make it to the foot specialist, he suffered a different kind of setback. In an update Tuesday, the team said Bader had “further injured his same foot” in a “scooter accident on Saturday night/early Sunday morning.” By Thursday, more details had begun to emerge.
According to statements from the San Francisco Fire and Police departments, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Bader was transported to a local hospital around 2 a.m. Sunday morning with non-life-threatening injuries. The incident occurred in the Marina district, the authorities said.
A witness who spoke to SFist anonymously shed more light on the incident, telling the publication that it took place outside the famed Balboa Cafe, a popular drinking hole owned by Governor Gavin Newsom, and involved a San Francisco Fire Department vehicle.
Per SFist, Bader rode his scooter into the back of a fire truck, which then ran over the same foot that was already injured, “causing major injury.” Additionally, local TV affiliate KPIX cited multiple witnesses who said Bader was seen drinking at bars across the city proceeding the incident.
The Giants have not provided any more details besides their initial statement, which said that Bader’s scheduled meeting about his plantar fasciitis was “complicated” by the crash and that the “impact of the injury changed the nature of his evaluation.”
The team said Bader was set to undergo an MRI on Tuesday to reveal the full extent of the damage caused by the crash, but Vitello said Thursday those results weren’t available yet.
Despite the persistent setbacks that caused Bader to seek outside medical help, Vitello had said as recently as Friday that he expected the center fielder to return this season.
The manager’s tone had changed by the time a week had passed.
“I said that? I did?” Vitello said Thursday.
Vitello said he first received word that something had happened involving Bader on Sunday, a day before he was set to fly to Indianapolis, but “he didn’t provide a lot of details to me.”
Vitello didn’t get into specifics after the team released the news Tuesday and said he was more concerned with Bader’s well-being but seemed to have come to terms that his outlook had changed.
“Obviously he’s not better than he was prior to that,” Vitello said. “It’s gonna delay — there’s a chance it could delay whatever the recovery process is for him. But even prior to it, we’re looking at a pretty frustrating and long runway before he could get on the field again.
Bader was signed to upgrade the Giants’ outfield defense and lengthen their lineup with an experienced right-handed bat expected to be in there on a regular basis. That hasn’t played out, as Bader posted career-lows in batting average (.170) and OPS (.557) in 111 plate appearances, though five of his 18 hits went for home runs and two of those were grand slams.
There’s reason to believe the Giants are considering taking further disciplinary action. Some contracts include language prohibiting the use of motorized scooters, though they have become common modes of transportation in big-league clubhouses, including San Francisco’s.
While it’s not yet clear if alcohol was involved in this incident, Bader was allegedly inebriated when he crashed a scooter into a parked car when he was at the University of Florida, resulting in a 19-game suspension.
Regarding any potential discipline, Vitello said “it wouldn’t be up to me.” But, he added, “I don’t know the circumstances. Depending on what those are, I wouldn’t rule any of that out. … The front office is sorting through all that other stuff.”
The whole saga has done nothing to change Vitello’s views on a method of transport utilized on occasion by his predecessor, Bob Melvin, and many others to pass through the Giants’ clubhouse in recent years. He would warn his players at Tennessee of David Hamilton, the current Brewers outfielder, who tore his Achilles when his scooter hit a pothole.
Now, he’s got another cautionary tale in Bader.
“I’m just not a fan,” Vitello said. “I spend a lot of time in Nashville. Nashville’s become a fun place for a lot of people. If you’re on a scooter around those people, you are risking your life. So, not a fan.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
