John Wetteland is back at home and denying that he was suicidal yesterday. As reported yesterday Wetteland was taken the a Dallas area hospital following a call to the police. Wetteland responded with the statement below.
“Thank you for your concerns,” Wetteland said in the statement. “My wife and I are very appreciative of the over and above care of our local officers and paramedics. The circumstances leading to my elevated blood pressure and heart rate have been addressed. I am currently resting safely at home.”
Truth be told I don’t really care if he was suicidal or not. I just hope the man gets help if he was and if he wasn’t I hope he got whatever taken care of that resulted in the police call in the first place.
Wetteland, 43, is currently the bullpen coach for the Seattle Mariners. He played 12 seasons in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. He appeared in 618 games picking up 330 saves with a 2.93 ERA.
In 1996 he led the American League with 43 saves as a member of the World Series winning New York Yankees. The following off-season he signed with the Rangers and Mariano Rivera has been in that role ever since.
That’s not to say that Wetteland wasn’t still a good pitcher following going to Texas. He picked up 150 saves with the Rangers compiling a 2.95 ERA in 248 games. He retired following the 2000 season and was inducted into the Texas Rangers hall of fame in 2005.
