New York Giants

Suspension of Mets' Mejia prompts newspaper's 'dumbest athlete' poll

Published Jul. 29, 2015 12:13 p.m. ET

foxsports

New York Mets reliever Jenrry Mejia joined an exclusive club when he received a 162-game ban from Major League Baseball on Tuesday for a second doping violation this season.

New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is the only other player to receive a suspension of that length, but Mejia's ban, shockingly, was his second this season. He was suspended 80 games in April for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs and made only seven appearances before his latest transgression.

That prompted the New York Post to ask its readers to cast a vote for "Who's the dumbest athlete in New York?"

Given that Mets general manager Sandy Alderson admitted he was "totally shocked, incredulous ... that this could happen so swiftly on the heels of a past suspension,” Mejia could normally be considered a shoo-in winner.

But the competition - in this case New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul - is stiff. Pierre-Paul had to have his right index finger amputated and suffered a broken right thumb in a fireworks mishap on July 4.

The star pass rusher exacerbated his situation by refusing to let two team officials see him at the hospital. Pierre-Paul has a one-year, $14.8 million franchise tender on the table that he has yet to sign and keeping the Giants in the dark over his injury will assuredly prevent any deal getting done.

(h/t New York Post)