Zack Cozart And Donkey Doing Fine Devin Mesoraco Is Back In The Lineup

http://donatelifeohio.org/

Zack Cozart finished batting practice on the day he was eligible to come off the disabled list.

The All-Star shortstop will spend another day because Sunday is a better day for the Reds to get him back to playing regularly.

Devin Mesoraco is in the starting lineup but Cozart will sit this one out.

http://www.wiedemannbeer.com/

“I’m doing way better,” said Cozart, who has been struggling with a strained quad.  ‘I should be in there tomorrow.  I will start tomorrow and kind of work my way through that.”

With a day game after a night game, it gives Cozart more time to recover.  There is a day game on Thursday and he will probably rest in either the night game Wednesday or the day game on Thursday.

“I ran the bases in Pittsburgh the other day.  It’s the best I’ve felt since I actually injured it back in San Francisco,” Cozart said. 

The Reds were in San Francisco in early May.  Cozart has been dealing with this for three months, playing awhile then resting a couple of days.  There was interest among teams to trade for Cozart before the trading deadline but as a player, who intends to explore free agency at the end of this year, teams backed off.

“Most injuries like this, you can’t really test them until you’re out there,” Cozart said.  “But with the preliminary stuff it can’t feel any better.  I want to finish the year feeling fine.”

The donkey named Don that Joey Votto bought for Cozart as a reward for making the All-Star team is doing fine.  The year old animal is being trained at Honey Hill Farms in Pendleton County.  Cozart will take it to his home to Memphis after the season.

“I’d like to have a live feed camera so I can see how he’s doing non stop,” Cozart said.  “They are working with him to get in a trailer.  I got some books on my birthday about taking care of a donkey.  They say the key is for him to have some companions.  There are some goats where I’m taking them.  I really do like donkeys”

Cozart wanted a donkey since he was a kid.

“My mom’s boss had a farm in Texas that we used to visit,” Cozart said. “We would go there to fish.  The place where we stayed, there was a cabin and he had a donkey. It was mean too. I was told to stay away from it.  I kind of liked them then.  There is a donkey farm close to the facility in Goodyear. I take my kids there.  It kind of grew from there.  Joey found out I liked them.”

Devin Mesoraco has been limited to pinch hit duty with a sore left knee  He left the game a week ago in Miami.