Brett Myers Involved in Verbal Altercation Night of Mysterious Eye Injury

On Saturday here at FanHouse I wrote about Phillies pitcher Brett Myers having to miss his first rehab start following hip surgery in May due to a swollen eye. An injury that Myers first claimed he suffered while playing catch with his son. He then later admitted he suffered the injury falling on his face as he got out of his truck early Saturday morning.

Since then plenty of rumors have circulated as to how Myers really got hurt, including a story about Myers and his wife getting into some kind of altercation while out that night. Well, it turns out there that while something happened that night, according to the police there were no signs Myers had been struck.

Myers and his wife Kim were involved in a verbal altercation with other patrons at a Jacksonville pub/restaurant late Friday night, according to four eye-witnesses and the St. John's County Sheriff's Department, but no punches were thrown and Myers did not appear to have been struck in the eye when deputies responded to the establishment.

Six eye-witnesses interviewed by the Daily News said that they saw Myers, his wife, and a small group of friends drinking at Shannon's Irish Pub Friday night in St. John's County, south of the immediate downtown area. It started as a normal Friday night, with Myers and his friends sitting at the bar listening to a folk/pop band play on stage. One fellow bar patron not associated with Myers' group said he briefly exchanged pleasantries with the righthander outside the bathroom sometime before 11 p.m.

Apparently sometime after 12:30 AM, there was a scuffle near the stage where the band was playing, and Myers was not involved. After that situation settled down, however, a second altercation occurred that involved Myers' wife. Somebody in the band then called the police because their equipment had been damaged, and according to the sheriff's deputy on the scene, "inappropriate comments" were directed at Kim Myers.

That's when Brett got involved, though the same sheriff's deputy said there was no evidence that Myers had been struck.

"Nobody alleged that he hit (anyone); nobody alleged that he was hitting," the spokesman said. "Obviously there was a lot of alcohol involved, but how much and on whose part we do not know."

Myers maintains that he only had about three beers, which a member of the wait staff at the bar confirmed, but also said they weren't sure what he may have ordered from anyone else involved.

So there you go. Myers was in an altercation, and he had been drinking, but not too much according to him and other witnesses. So maybe he really did just fall out of his truck after all. Either way, the lesson here is that Myers should have just told the truth from the start.

Telling a lie originally only to admit to it later just fuels all of this speculation.