New York Yankees Have Played A Concussed Anthony Rizzo For Two Months And I Have Many Questions: Mike Gunzelman

"Who knew what, and when did they know it?"

Those are just some of the questions Yankees fans like myself are demanding answers to after first baseman Anthony Rizzo was placed on the Injured List. He was placed there yesterday for the foreseeable future with concussion-like symptoms.

The problem? Rizzo's initial concussion concern was from OVER TWO MONTHS AGO when he collided with Fernando Tatis Jr. back on May 28.

To make matters even worse, last week when Rizzo informed the team that he was experiencing blurriness and "fogginess," after a series in Baltimore against the Orioles, the Yankees STILL had him play in two games against the Rays before undergoing more tests on Wednesday. "Just take a Tylenol, that'll fix it," said no one ever except maybe the Yankees medical staff.

This is supposed to be the New York Yankees - the premiere, the pinnacle, THE NEW YORK YANKEES with the best doctors that their billions of dollars can buy. And now, we hear that they were playing a likely concussed Anthony Rizzo for months without thinking "hey, maybe we should check on him again."

Oh, and he STUNK the last two months.

HOW DID YANKEES DOCTORS MISDIAGNOSE RIZZO SO BADLY?

The issue is even more puzzling when Yankees fans, myself included, kept publicly saying that something is wrong with the former World Series champion. The stats backed it up - before the May 28 collision Rizzo was hitting .304 with 11 home runs and 32 RBIs. Since then, he hit .172, with just one home run and 9 RBIs.

"It was more walking back and saying, ‘Man, I don’t understand how I missed that pitch.’ I would swing at a pitch middle-away, and I thought it was three feet off the plate. Things like that really started making me concerned," Rizzo told reporters after the IL announcement.

“Everything that they talked about basically came back with a silver lining - that I’m not crazy for walking back to the dugout constantly thinking, ‘Man, how did I miss that pitch?" Rizzo continued. " came back saying I’m moving a lot slower than the normal person’s reaction time would be, and that’s definitely alarming, especially for what we do for a living.”

AARON BOONE ADMITS IT'S BEEN GOING ON FOR MONTHS

The team's decision to continue to play Rizzo has now brought the Yankees, their doctors and Major League Baseball's concussion protocols heavy criticism. During last night's Yankees - Astros game, manager Aaron Boone was asked about Rizzo's condition.

"Ya know is kind of the start of where he started to struggle. How much? No one really knows for sure but they definitely trace it back to that's when it happened and he's been struggling to kind of find it ever since. And lately he's been talking about feeling foggy and hopefully now he's got the right diagnosis and he's on the road to recovery," Boone told FOX's Ken Rosenthal.

I'm sorry, but if the Yankees think that they can just nonchalantly pass this over, they are completely wrong. It'd be one thing if the team was actually performing remotely well (they aren't) maybe they could hide from some scrutiny. But the fact is, they can't - especially with something SO bold and honestly so bad.

I WANT TO KNOW THE FOLLOWING:

And the big one I'd love to get an answer to but know I never will:

Did the Yankees, or even Rizzo himself, put additional pressure to keep playing - despite most likely being hurt and CLEARLY not 100%... because Aaron Judge was out and they needed to try and push through to get as many wins as they possibly could?

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 31: Anthony Rizzo #48 of the New York Yankees reacts after striking out during the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on July 31, 2023 in Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

ANTHONY RIZZO ON THE IL FOR FORESEEABLE FUTURE

We've all heard the stories before. Sometimes professional sports franchises will purposely NOT ask for more medical tests because they don't want to find out something is wrong. In many cases they will do the bare minimum - only what is legally required to save their own asses.

Well guess what? Hopefully somebody gets fired for this and someone is held accountable. I want General Manager Brian Cashman out on the podium today explaining who, what and when the Yankees knew about Rizzo's continued cognitive issues.

If the Yankees fans are irate, then the Yankees players and team should be as well. Yet, the team's silence so far is quite disturbing, as if they're almost trying to get a narrative in place to cover how bad they botched this whole entire situation.