Coach Brown wanted to set some things straight after his former QB coach appeared on ESPN 97.5 earlier this week. Photo by: Independence CC/Facebook
Independence Community College head football coach Jason Brown joins Lance Zierlein and Raheel Ramzanali, who is in for John Granato as he's on vacation, and talks about his experience appearing on Netflix's Last Chance U Season 3, how he thinks he was portrayed on the show, his thoughts on how recruiting is impacted when filming a TV show, and his take on former QB coach Frank Diaz. Don't miss this electric segment on The Bench. Listen HERE.
You can hear The Bench with John Granato and Lance Zierlein weekdays from 7-9am on ESPN 97.5 and SportsMap 94.1 radio. You can listen live or on demand with the ESPN 97.5 radio app.
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Astros offense flickered — and then the Rays took over
May 31, 2025, 7:02 pm
Yordan Alvarez’s hand injury is worse than it originally appeared.
The Houston slugger felt pain in his right hand on Friday while hitting and a small fracture that was previously believed to be a muscle strain was discovered. The fracture is about 60% healed.
General manager Dana Brown said he believes the fracture in Alvarez’s fourth metacarpal wasn’t discovered in initial imaging on May 6 because there was too much inflammation and fluid.
Alvarez has been out since May 3 with the injury. They had hoped he could come off the injured list this weekend.
“The immediate plan for him right now is to just let it rest,” Brown said. “And he’ll still continue to do other baseball activity like the running, he could probably go out in the outfield and catch. He can do everything else except for pick up a bat. And so, we don’t even want him hitting off tees even though he feels good enough to hit off a tee. Just let it heal completely and then you’ll be back.”
Since Friday’s imaging showed that the fracture was already more than halfway healed, Brown doesn’t believe it will keep him out too much longer.
“We’re hopeful that because he’s healed so much that ... he’ll be back sooner rather than later,” Brown said.
Alvarez was asked when he expects to return.
“I wish I had a magic ball to tell you,” he said in Spanish through a translator. “The good news is that it’s healing well, but I need rest because the fact that I was keeping on doing swings, it was taking it back, taking it (longer) to heal.”
Brown added that they think the fracture occurred when Alvarez tried to play through the initial muscle strain. Brown said he played for almost two weeks after initially noticing the problem before the first imaging was done.
“The muscle strain was real,” Brown said. “I really think that when he was fighting through those weeks knowing that it wasn’t the same feeling as some of his hand problems in the past ... maybe that’s when he may have caused a little bit more damage.”
Alvarez hit .210 with three home runs and 18 RBIs in 29 games this season before landing on the injured list.