{This article was originally published on Hot Stove New York.}

I’m not a doctor. I’m not even a science major. But I’m a sports fan, and a hockey fan, and over the years I’ve picked up a nugget or two concerning head injuries and the impact of post-concussion syndrome.

The NHL as a league took a long, hard look at head injuries in their sport right around the time that superstar Eric Lindros was clearly losing his battle with the recurring condition – a condition that had already forced his younger brother out of hockey. It’s no coincidence that the league stood up and took notice when Lindros’ career seemed in jeopardy. After all, the NHL had billed Lindros as the next to grasp the baton handed from Gordie Howe to Wayne Gretzky and later Mario Lemieux, much in the same way that the league is currently marketing Sidney Crosby. Nobody cared that Brett Lindros would never play again, but once Eric was felled it was time to take a look at just what exactly we had been doing to these athletes’ brains.

But this isn’t about the NHL. This is about Major League Baseball, and specifically the way the Mets have handled Ryan Church‘s latest concussion, his second in three months. Baseball has never had an Eric Lindros. Superstars lost to the stigma of PEDs, yes, but never to head injury. Still, you would think that someone amongst the team’s medical staff would know a sliver of what the NHL has uncovered about concussions since they began to investigate the injury. You would think someone, anyone within the Mets organization would have at least a cursory knowledge of the NHL’s battle with the injury and the measures they’ve taken to erase it from their game.

It is absolutely absurd that only after meeting with a neurologist on Tuesday has the team decided that it’s in Church’s best interest to “stay home, rest and pretty much stay out of the light, daylight,” as GM Omar Minaya told the media yesterday. Church has been suffering from headaches and dizziness since taking a knee to the head from Atlanta’s Yunel Escobar last week, yet despite these tell-tale symptoms of post-concussion syndrome, Church was allowed to travel with the team to Denver and back home, and has even been called upon to pinch-hit on four occasions since the injury. On a recent SNY broadcast, play-by-play man Gary Cohen indicated that Church did not even recall the hit he recorded in the first of those pinch-hit appearances.

Honestly, the negligence is mind-boggling, and it is magnified 10-fold by the fact that Church has now suffered two concussions in three months, and entered Tuesday night’s game tied for the team lead in homers (9), runs (34), and second in RBI (32). It’s nice to see the franchise protecting its assets.

For the record, the NHL would not have allowed Church to travel, practice, or even workout until he was completely symptom-free. Neurologists and concussion specialists have advised the league that any sort of exercise, exertion, or exposure to light and sound can worsen a concussion and/or prolong its effects. They have also learned that each successive head injury tends to be worse than the last, and that with every concussion suffered, the likelihood of a complete recovery decreases. Just ask former Rangers Jeff Beukeboom and Mike Richter, both of whom had their careers ended due to concussions, and both of whom suffered from fatigue and sensitivity to light for years following their injuries.

The NHL had to learn the hard way, and the Mets appear determined to take that route as well. I just hope it doesn’t cost anyone their career.