A member of the Arizona Diamondbacks coaching staff had to go to the hospital recently after an incident during a game. First-base coach Dave McKay tripped and fell in the dugout. The 71-year-old suffered a broken rib and lacerated spleen.
According to the New York Post, McKay was wearing a new pair of shoes on Monday as the Diamondbacks took on the Giants. He tripped on the dugout’s bottom step and fell against the bench but ultimately stayed at the park. However, McKay began to experience more pain the following morning. He underwent a procedure, keeping him away from the team for the near future.
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“He’s fine, everything’s good,” team manager Torey Lovullo said on Friday. He’s just going to need to step away.” Lovullo added that McKay is “resting comfortably” and that he had a procedure to “cauterize the spleen.” Lovullo said that “everything is thumbs up right now.”
While McKay should make a full recovery and return to the team, it won’t immediately happen. Lovullo said that the coach would have to “step away for a while.” Though he fully expects McKay back in time for Opening Day on April 1.
“It’s going to probably be a week, at least, before we see him active at camp,” Lovullo said, per MLB.com. “But he’s OK and this is just all precautionary. He’ll be ready for the season. And in true Dave form, when he was calling to tell me that he was not feeling so well and he was going to need to have a procedure, he said, ‘I probably will [not] make the game tonight, but I’ll be ready tomorrow.’ That’s his mindset.”
McKay has a reputation around the clubhouse of being in very good shape. He follows a strict diet and workout regimen that keeps him “looking decades younger” than his actual age. In fact, some players have even talked about McKay’s level of fitness as something to pursue.
“He’s a trooper, takes care of himself super well,” shortstop Nick Ahmed told reporters. “We know he’s going to bounce back great. As someone who takes care of my health and enjoys that aspect of life, he’s on a pedestal. I’m chasing Dave McKay, I want to be better than he is at 70. So, we’ll see what happens. I got a bunch of years to go, but our birthdays are pretty close, so we talked about it quite a bit here.”
A veteran of the sport, McKay previously played in the Majors. He suited up from 1975 to 1982 and played for the Twins, Blue Jays, and A’s. He has been with the Diamondbacks since 2014 but has been a coach for 35 years.
