Major League Baseball

Gardenhire tells Neshek no medical tweets

Published May. 14, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Ron Gardenhire wants Pat Neshek to stop tweeting out of turn.

The Minnesota Twins pitcher, on the disabled list since May 2 with a hand injury, wrote on his Twitter account the injury had been misdiagnosed.

``Had MRI, Went to Hand Specialist, found pain was coming from my palm and not my finger like 1st diagnosed,'' Neshek said in a May 5 posting.

Gardenhire was not amused his player went public in cyberspace with a complaint against the Twins medical staff.

``My opinion of him tweeting that he was misdiagnosed? Was not very happy with him,'' the manager said before Friday's game against the New York Yankees. ``I talked to him. We got it all straightened out.''

Using technology that didn't exist in Gardenhire's days as a major league player with the New York Mets (1981-85), Neshek addressed the injury on his Facebook page on May 6 in response to someone's post.

``Yeah it's been a drag on me. Here's what's going on. I injured my finger about 3 weeks ago, got a cortisone shot in the finger and told to rest for a week,'' the 29-year-old right-hander wrote, adding the finger felt better but the pain remained.

``Well, 3 weeks have passed and I'm still having trouble gripping a ball. I went in for an MRI and to a hand specialist and learned that my pain came from my palm. My pain was coming from near the palm of my hand where my middle finger in my palm...called a pulley tendon.''

Neshek went on to write on Facebook that ``I'm not happy with anything that has gone on especially when it could have been taken care off 3 weeks ago and was told the wrong info.''

Gardenhire said he explained to Neshek why he was unhappy.

``Our doctors are here to help you and get you better, and they put in a lot effort and their time to do that, and they don't deserve to be thrown underneath any kind of bus,'' the manager recalled telling him. ``If you have something to say, you should say it to me or to the doctors and not on Tweeter.''

Neshek returned to pitch for his hometown team this year after missing more than 1 1/2 seasons with an elbow injury that required reconstructive surgery. The sidearmer made six relief appearances, compiling a 4.15 ERA, before going on the DL.

He did not travel with the Twins on the trip. Neshek wrote on Facebook that the best thing for the injury would be a direct injection of cortisone but that he had to wait until a week after the web posting.

``You have to understand the press really doesn't understand what is really going on other than what they read or what they hear and they need to have something to talk about,'' he wrote. ``My number one priority is to get this feeling fine and pitch...I don't care where I pitch Twins, AAA, AA, A whatever because I know when I'm healthy I will be getting guys out.''

Neshek wrote he and Gardenhire ``had a miscommunication in Cleveland but are on the same page.'' The manager said any disagreement was behind them.

``It's over with,'' Gardenhire said. ``He was just frustrated at the time. He understood that it was not a good statement.''

Gardenhire said Neshek had spoken with the doctors.

``He wants to pitch - that's a good thing,'' the manager said. ``Let's keep all that other stuff out of the way.''

And then he chirped his conclusion: ``Tweet. Tweet.''

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