New York Met Jason Bay’s ‘Delayed’ Concussion Likely To Put Him On The DL

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Posted on 29th July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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The New York Mets aren’t taking any chances with the health of Jason Bay, who sustained a concussion — without knowing it — after running into an outfield wall trying to make a catch. It looks like Bay is going to wind up on the disabled list, the New York Post reported Thursday.

 http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/metsblog/mets_bay_rests_again_with_concussion_OAqLV4OOypHUe2ihokZk2O

Update: Bay was in fact put on the DL Friday, for 15 days.

http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2010/07/mets_outfielder_jason_bay_land.html

The left fielder’s case is a good example of why thorough testing and examinations — such as are available now — should be performed to determine the severity of a head injury. That’s a lesson all should have learned from the death last year of actress Natasha Richardson.

Bay ran into the wall last Friday night while playing in Los Angeles, catching a fly ball and holding onto it. But he didn’t start getting any of the symptoms of a concussion, namely a dull headache, until Sunday night, when he was flying home from the road trip to the City of Angels, according to The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/sports/baseball/28citifield.html?_r=1&ref=sports

Bay apparently mentioned his headaches to his trainers on the plane, but that bit of important news didn’t make its way to Mets manager Jerry Manuel until Tuesday. That was after Bay had gone to a doctor, right before the Mets were ready to play the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field.

Manuel pulled Bay out of Tuesday’s lineup, and the $66 million-contract player had not been feeling much better the past few days.

Bay said that this was his first concussion, and that his doctor suggested he might actually have “more of a whiplash,” according to The Times. 

“He said the doctor told him it was uncommon for someone to have delayed symptoms with a concussion,” The Times wrote. 

This is yet another case that doctors need to do a careful evaluation of those who suffer brain injury, particualry those involving symptoms such as amnesia and neurobehaviorial changes.

Baseball Player, Beaned By 93-MPH Ball, Sues MLB, Helmet Maker

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Posted on 21st July 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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An up-and-coming baseball player who was hit in the head with a 93-mph fastball has filed suit against Major League Baseball and his helmet’s manufacturer, according to the New York Post. As in many traumatic brain injury cases, it’s a tragic story.  

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/player_beans_helmet_firm_with_lawsuit_8YjjJoLtJcAhAzFO1yNROP

Jordan Wolf , 25, was playing for the Baltimore Orioles Class A farm team when the accident took place. In 2008 Wolf was beaned in the head. He suffered a skull fracture that went from his ear to the top of his cranium, according to the Post. 

The young player with lots of promise got a brain hemorrhage. He can no longer speak and his has no feeling on the right side of his body. His baseball career is over.

In addition, Wolf has now been diagnosed with epilepsy and has had a number of seizures, the Post wrote.

In his suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, Wolf is asking for unspecified damages from Rawlings sporting goods and MLB. He alleges that they failed to make sure he had enough protection while he was playing.

 

 

Should Baseball Pitchers Wear Helmets?: Debate Renewed After Cleveland Pitcher Gets Beaned

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Posted on 3rd June 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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 It hasn’t even been a week since New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez hit Cleveland Indians pitcher David Huff in the head with a line drive. But Huff seems to have emerged magically uninjured by that heart-stopping accident.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/sports/baseball/30yankees.html?ref=sports

 Huff, who had to be carried out of Yankee Stadium on a stretcher after getting beaned May 29, is back playing ball. The pitcher, who never lost consciousness after A-Rod’s hit struck him, didn’t sustain a concussion, or get so much as a headache, from being hit. His CT scan came back negative.

 http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/day-after-being-hit-in-head-huff-is-feeling-good/

 The evening of the day he was hit, Huff tweeted, “Everything is good. Was a little scary, but I’m out of the hospital and with my family.”

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2010/05/cleveland_indians_left-hander.html

 That’s all pretty remarkable, in that Rodriguez hit the ball with such force that it after it struck Huff’s head it flew and landed roughly 275 feet from home plate.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/He-s-OK-folks-Indians-David-Huff-takes-A-Rod-?urn=mlb,244510

 Although the Huff case had a happy ending, the scary incident has some sports writer bringing up a question that’s been debated in baseball: Should pitchers be required to wear helmets for protection, like catchers?

 The knee-jerk reaction might be to say yes, pitchers should don helmets. After all, they face hardballs shooting back at race car-like speeds, more than 90 mph.

 And some players who have been hit in the head like Huff didn’t fare as well as him. The Cleveland Indians seem to be particularly jinxed. In 1920 Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman was killed by a pitched ball. And Indians pitcher Herb Score’s promising career ended when he was hit in the face with a line drive in 1957.

 But how far do you go to eliminate risk in sports? By their very nature, sports involve all kind of risks. You can’t eliminate them all.

 And if you believe baseball pitchers should wear helmets, then it follows that you would want to mandate that basketball players wear helmets, as well. In a recent week there were two concussions in just one basketball game. Basketball has a much higher frequency of concussions than baseball, except when it comes to batting.

 That said, the biggest risk of severe brain injury in baseball is not a pitcher taking a line drive in the head. It’s two outfielders going after the same ball and then colliding at a very high speed, head on head. Each year, some player dies as the result of such a collision.

 My answer to making baseball safer for pitchers isn’t a helmet, but rather a ban on aluminum bats. A player can swing an aluminum bat faster than a wooden bat, accelerating the speed the ball comes off the bat – and at the pitcher. That’s why for at least a decade the use of aluminum bats has been a controversial issue.

 Back in 2000, ESPN Magazine did a story headlined “Bat Controversy Lingers Over NCAA.”  In part, that article described how player stats soared as “hot” aluminum bats became more prevalent in the game. In the College World Series championship, from 1994 to 1998 there were 105 runs scored, versus only 33 in 1989 to 1993.  

http://espn.go.com/gen/s/2000/0329/453294.html

 Last year a Montana jury awarded a family $850,000 for the death of their son, who was killed in a 2003 baseball game where aluminum bats were used. The jury found that Louisville Slugger didn’t properly warn people about the potential dangers of the bat.

http://www.roundupnews.com/sports/aluminum-bats-still-safe-despite-lawsuit-against-bat-maker-1.861272

 But even that jury award didn’t convince people like New Mexico State University baseball coach Ricky Ward that aluminum bats were unsafe. In an interview, Ward said that deaths from batted baseballs were very uncommon.

 Ward suggested that instead of worrying about the aluminum bat, that the specifications on baseballs themselves be changed.

 That’s a new answer to an old problem, but we don’t know if it would work.