Published in the Westchester Guardian, October 2014
Imagine turning on the radio or reading the newspaper and being told you are no longer capable of doing a job that you have trained for your entire life. A job you worked at, studied and dreamed about every day. You’re called a bum, you stink, you failed and passed your prime. Or maybe your children heard these comments in school while you’re spending half the time on the road and your team’s home town is not really your home. You’re still away from your loved ones. You’re barely thirty.
You perform in front of thousands, ready and willing enough to judge your every move. They will quickly commend as well as condemn and you do it because you love the game. If you’re a position player you might be able to perform and prove your worth everyday where failing 7 out of 10 times is considered success. But as a pitcher you have to live through days of waiting for the next performance, with periods of intense doubt, self-analysis replaying a particular pitch. Your dreams become nightmares. Being a public figure can make you leery of being in public. You’re living in a pressure cooker. You find ways to unwind, live with uncertainty, relax and hopefully some of these stress reducing habits don’t become habit forming – alcohol. You are also supposed to be strong, mature, and self-reliant in a secular, masculine world where negative feelings and doubt should be masked over. How much can the psyche endure?
Besides anxiety, players can experience other forms of mental health issues diagnosis such as depression. In 2009, Reds first baseman and future MVP, Joey Votto experienced anxiety with depression. Kahill Greene, had the same dual diagnosis. Pitchers Scott Schoeneweis (Arizona) and Justin Duchscherer (Oakland) suffered from depression. One of the most active years for having players on the disabled list (DL), 2009 saw five players with mental health issues.
Mental health issues do not just affect the younger players. Aubrey Huff, 35, of the San Francisco Giants, returned to the roster from the 15 day DL list after being diagnosed with anxiety disorder. Hoff said that visits to a mental health therapist helped him regain a sense of well-being that he lacked. He replaced Guillermo Mota suspended 100 games due to testing positive for a substance violation.
The National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI) states that one out of every four people will suffer from mental illness in a given year. There are 26 teams with 25 players each, without taking into account coaches and the minor leagues. I’ve read data showing that between 1972 -1991 the total number of players on the DL for mental health issues was zero. Various forms of therapy and medication are part of the multi-pronged attack in combating mental illness. One of the more public and successful players, Zack Greinke was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder in 2006. He took time off for most of the year and won the Cy Young Award in 2009. In regards to medication, he stated in 2010, “This medicine is unbelievable. I’m still the same person, but my attitude about everything is different”. “Zack was like Jackie Robinson. He really paved the way for the modern player to come out about these types of issues”, says Mike Sweeney. (Pablo S. Torre, Sports Illustrated, June 21, 2010). Probably the most widely know case of mental illness issues is that of Jimmy Piersall whose unusual behavior was due to bipolar disorder.
“Kill yourself. Get it over with, and you won’t have to deal with this anymore”, were the inner thoughts repeating themselves to Ian Snell as reported in Sports Illustrated. “Just do it, already and be at peace.” The suicide rate for males in the U.S. is 17.7 per 100,000. For MLB it’s 46.3 per 100,000 per one web site. The Baseball Almanac records approximately 79 suicides of ballplayers since 1900, with twenty-seven since 1960. The list is not all inclusive. Not included is the 11 year veteran, retired umpire Ron Luciano committed suicide in 1995 at the age of 57. I wonder about the more physical sports, the amount of injuries especially head injuries.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) established by MLB in 1981, originally focused on issues other than mental health, to aid players and their families manage personal problems especially substances abuse. (The connection regarding chemical abuse and mental illness has only recently been established with the belief that chemical addiction may now be seen initially as self-medicating). The program stated that every team must institute a system dealing with issues the players and their families may incur. Now things have changed and consultations also focus on mental health. Twice a year, major league EAP team representatives meet to discuss mental health and other issues. Owners have invested a lot of capital on ballplayers and it is in their best interest to have health issues not stop with just physical ailments.
The size of a baseball organization can range up to 250 employees with a much larger compliment on game days. The league itself has professional psychiatrists and clinical psychologists on hand for evaluation while teams have mental health professionals readily available and on the payroll. The San Francisco Giants began their internal EAP back in 1991. They may be the only team to have had their own EAP when they won the 2010 World Series.
There’s also the Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.). Staffed and run by former players, this non-profit, 501© (3) organization was started over 27 years ago. More than $25 million in grants have been awarded to 2,800 members (ballplayers and their families) needing assistance. They assist all members of the baseball family. This includes the minor leagues, umpires, coaches, scouts, Negro League and women’s professional league.
As fans and ownership demand 100% effort 100% of the time, with astronomical salaries and usually not having control of where you will be employed, players might be living with constant insecurity. There are still questions to be answered. Hopefully the corner is turning. With the stigma lessening, the current players can be examples to our youth.
Glenn Slaby Blog