Article: PP Report: Mauer's Concussion Symptoms Continue

[Steven Buhr]

In an article posted early Friday afternoon, Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reported that Minnesota Twins catcher-turned-first baseman Joe Mauer has continued to suffer from concussion symptoms, including blurred vision, over the past two seasons. (Click here to read the article)

 

This is some scary stuff.The Mauer story has been beaten to death, so I won’t rehash everything here. Suffice to say, Mauer was on a near-certain Hall of Fame catching career arc before the beatings he took behind the plate led to multiple concussions and, ultimately, a move to first base.

 

 

The hope was that the position move would allow him to play more games and, not inconsequentially, give him a much better chance of living out the rest of his life without dealing with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

 

While Mauer has never played more games or made more plate appearances in a season than he did in 2015, he has not hit baseballs in the manner that made him a three-time American League batting champion and 2009 AL MVP. Now, perhaps, we know why.

 

Murphy included a number of interesting (some would say troubling) quotes from Mauer, including the following two statements concerning the vision problems he would occasionally deal with.

 

“It could be a lot of things,” Mauer continued. “There are so many different symptoms. For me it was lighting, I couldn’t really pick up the ball. It was blurry at times."

 

And:

 

“If you’re just a little off, you’re fouling off pitches you should be driving into the gap,” he said. “In the big leagues, you don’t get too many more opportunities to see good ones to hit.”

 

This is certainly a true statement. Major league pitchers throw fastballs that run between 90 and 100 miles per hour and mix them with off-speed pitches that prevent even the best hitters (those with perfect vision) from being able to react with perfect timing. Given that Mauer has apparently not benefited from perfect vision, it’s not surprising that he has fallen from the ranks of the game’s best hitters.

 

But that was not my first reaction to reading the Mauer quote.

 

I can’t be the only person whose first thought was that, if blurred vision causes Mauer to be, “just a little off,” the last situation into which he should place himself is standing 60 feet away from a man throwing a baseball 95 miles per hour.

 

Joe Mauer is a professional athlete who has competed at the highest level of his profession and, while he famously may not have a reputation for demonstrating it outwardly in a manner recognizable to fans, he has a competitive nature that no doubt causes him to think first and foremost about how various factors influence his ability to perform at levels he has become accustomed to.

 

It’s easy to see, from the other statements he made to Murphy, that the desire to regain his game and help his team to succeed has resulted in him not only continuing to take the field in spite of continued concussion symptoms, but also be less than 100% forthcoming with his manager and others in the organization about those ongoing symptoms.

 

I haven’t read much of the social media reaction to this article yet, but I’m sure there will be a lot of criticism of Mauer. After all, criticism of Mauer has almost surpassed drilling holes in the ice and pretending to fish while you drink excessive volumes of bad beer as the favorite pastime of a certain segment of the Minnesota population.

 

Personally, I’ve made enough poor life decisions in my nearly six decades of time on this planet that I try to refrain from criticizing the decisions others make concerning how they lead their lives.

 

I’m not concerned right now about whether Mauer’s continued presence in the Twins lineup is a positive or negative for the short, middle or long term success of my favorite MLB team.

 

I simply do not want to see Mauer’s career end in a frightful manner.

 

According to the article, Mauer says he has been more asymptomatic during his off-season workouts this year and that he’ll be trying new exercises and even wearing sunglasses this spring to try to keep the vision issues at bay and regain his productivity at the plate.

 

I hope he’s successful. I hope that this summer, finally, he will be symptom-free and will hit baseballs in a manner that will remind all of us, himself included, of the Joe Mauer we watched before the concussion problems surfaced.

 

However, if he finds himself unable to see clearly every pitch thrown in his direction at a dangerously high rate of speed, I hope he’ll realize that continuing to expose himself to that kind of risk is not in his best future interests - nor that of his family.

 

(This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)

 

Click here to view the article

[nytwinsfan]

Well put. The frustrasting but probably inevitable thing for fans is that even now we probably don't know the whole story. So it is hard to judge what he and the Twins should do, but these latest comments from Mauer about vision problems are very upsetting. In retrospect, maybe he should have taken some more time off during the last couple years when the team wasn't going to make the playoffs anyway, to try to rest and give his brain some time to heal. But what do I know, maybe the best way to overcome the vision problems is to keep working out his brain by trying to hit baseballs. The human brain is a complicated and unpredictable thing.

[Boom Boom]

He must have been medically cleared to play, at least if he didn't catch. If he wasn't completely forthcoming before, he was taking it upon himself to go out on the field.

 

No one wants to see a player's career end in injury. I guess if the medical staff and Joe himself say that he can play, then I won't worry about another concussion because apparently they don't.

 

I do feel a bit sorry for Joe IF the concussion robbed him of a HOF career. At least as sorry as I can for a guy whose great-great-grandkids probably will never need to work a day.

[ewen21]

With what we know about concussions, there needs to be no grey area.  Either Joe is clear to play or he is not.  Simple as that.  Put him through concussion protocols, give him a full evaluation.  Get his vision checked from soup to nuts.  He should not step into a batting cage until this happens.  If he refuses then he doesn't play.

 

I personally think it is outrageous to assume that he still has had post-concussion issues for TWO YEARS and it has just stayed under the radar while he's continued to play.  This implies that the Twins and Joe's entire support system can't connect dots or that Joe has never said anything about after TWO YEARS.  That is just absurd.  I gotta put a lot of the blame on Joe for not having the common sense to speak up.

 

I'm sorry, but what in the world is he thinking??

[Dantes929]

A little misleading between the headline and article.    I have never had any problem connecting decrease in production and lingering concussion symptoms.    It was much the same with Morneau.   The farther you get from it the better off you will be.   Not to say there is a time table or exact science to it.     Maybe he will never get back to where he was but the headline says it is lingering and the article says he has been symptom free for 3 months.   Which is it?   Would not shock me if he never regains his form but it would not shock me for him to hit .320 again either and if any team could use a guy at the front of the order getting on base .400 of the time it is this one.

[ewen21]

 

....the article says he has been symptom free for 3 months.   Which is it? 

i have a problem with that if it is true.  This means that Mauer simply played on without letting anyone know.  He gets no points for that given what we know about concussions.  That is straight up nuts.  The other thing is that the Twins, his support system, everyone surrounding him allowed him to play on with these symptoms for TWO SEASONS.  I simply cannot reconcile that.  It is such a far-reaching assumption.

 

If Joe played two years with these lingering symptoms aren't the Twins grossly negligent in allowing him to play?  Isn't Joe flippin nuts for not saying thing one until just now?  This is just straight up weird and it speaks to Joe's lack of regard for accurate communication.  There always seems to be a veneer of mystery.  I think Joe wants it that way.

 

Odd

[EddieMatthews]

It may not be a valid comparison to look at Mauer and Morneau as all brain injuries are not the same.  Morneau suffered his concussion in 2010 while on an MVP season. He did not recover his batting skills until 2014 when he won the NL batting title, and continued in 2015 with another +.300 season.  Morneau has not recovered his slugging performance, but appears to have a higher average.

 

There is an evolving science on concussions and treatments to improve recovery.  While some recover more quickly, baseball is a complex sport that requires special skills and the brain is integral to those skills.

 

Mauer is in year 3 of his concussion recovery.  We can hope that this will be a break-out year for him.  It may take another year.  It may not happen,  I agree with other posters that playing baseball is the best exercise for improving brain function as it relates to playing baseball.

[KGB]

I think throwing out things like CTE is kind of like the Ebola scare - we are jumping way ahead.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but no baseball player has ever been diagnosed with CTE.  I'm not sure how to understand if he was suffering vision problems, it took him over 2 years to consider sunglasses.

 

I think the most interesting thing he said was:

"If you’re just a little off, you’re fouling off pitches you should be driving into the gap,” he said. “In the big leagues, you don’t get too many more opportunities to see good ones to hit.”

 

Hope that also means he going to stop taking the first strike, that also might be the best pitch he see's in his at-bat.  Reducing the K's will go a long way to getting his average back, when Morneau won his battle title he had a large drop in his K%

 

[mnfireman]

For anybody doubting lingering concussion symptoms, see Koskie, Corey! So yes, 3 years (or more) of symptoms are very possible.

 

I am gonna say that Mauer falls somewhere between Morneau (who I believe still has lingering symptoms, check the stats since 2010) and Koskie (who was never able to play again after his last concussion).

 

Not to go into a big spiel on concussion effects, but brain injuries are a BIG deal and should not be taken lightly. 

[ken]

 

 

For anybody doubting lingering concussion symptoms, see Koskie, Corey! So yes, 3 years (or more) of symptoms are very possible.

 

I am gonna say that Mauer falls somewhere between Morneau (who I believe still has lingering symptoms, check the stats since 2010) and Koskie (who was never able to play again after his last concussion).

 

Not to go into a big spiel on concussion effects, but brain injuries are a BIG deal and should not be taken lightly. 

Nobody should downplay concussion, but also nobody should make assumption about how serious a person concussion is or is not.  If it's so bad, it's time to move on.  If he continues to step on the field, let's not use it as an excuse.

 

And since none of us know where he is on his concussion and he has gone back and forth on whether he has any symptoms, I'll just have to judge him on his on field performance.

[DrNeau]

I personally think it is outrageous to assume that he still has had post-concussion issues for TWO YEARS and it has just stayed under the radar while he's continued to play. This implies that the Twins and Joe's entire support system can't connect dots or that Joe has never said anything about after TWO YEARS. That is just absurd. I gotta put a lot of the blame on Joe for not having the common sense to speak up.

 

I'm sorry, but what in the world is he thinking??

No one will ever ask him. Ever. Not from the Twins, and NEVER from a source of the media.

[DrNeau]

Hope this is finally the year he overcomes whatever the heck it is that's holding him back.

[ThejacKmp]

I do feel a bit sorry for Joe IF the concussion robbed him of a HOF career. At least as sorry as I can for a guy whose great-great-grandkids probably will never need to work a day.

This concussion wouldn't rob him of a hall of fame career, joe is already a hall of famer. Three batting titles and an mvp while playing gold glove defense at catcher for nearly a decade will get him in. It's unprecedented and puts him in the discussion for best hitting catchers of all time (and with not even a whiff of steroid use). He's a top-5 all time catcher for many, certainly top-10 for most anyone else.

 

What this has almost certainly robbed him of is first ballot hall of fame, which he seemed on a trajectory towards. I can't even think of what he'd have to do to get back in that discussion. I think he'd have to take a late run at .400 or challenge dimaggios 56 games hitting streak to overcome the bitter taste the late career struggles will leave in voters mouths. Maybe some Jack Morris playoff magic (though that's much harder for a batter - particularly one unlikely to hit three or four home runs in a pivotal game. He'd need to hit like .650 in a World Series with multiple game winning hits? Maybe in several playoff series even?). I guess a few more batting titles could do it but again, that seems unlikely.

 

But yeah, he will make the hall. It will take some time to build but the steroid era backup will be done by the time he hits the ballot and an honest look at his career will get him in in year 5-10.

[Mike Sixel]

If he's still having issues that are interfering with his production, he should retire, both for his own health, and the for the good of the team. Frankly, I don't care about the team compared to him as a person.

 

[diehardtwinsfan]

If anything, I think this should be a reason for the Twins to take it easier with him this year, and not necessarily plug him into the lineup every day (and given Park and Arcia likely on the roster, that should be doable). 

 

I'd imagine a lot of that stress gets brought out when the season gets grueling... call me crazy there.  That said, it's year 3 now.  Hopefully his brain has healed.  He never had a ton of power, so hopefully that batting eye comes back and he can have a couple more .320/.400/.480 type seasons. 

[laloesch]

I don't buy it.  It's been 2+ years since his "concussion."   Not sure when it became multiple concussions per the linked article but that's a story for a different day.  By the way, Joe is off to an early start with the excuses for 2016. Not a good sign. 

 

I'm so sick and tired of Mauer's "aw shucks golly gee" routine.  If your STILLLLl struggling with post concussion symptoms then it's time to retire already and stop whining to the fans and media about it.  Stop wasting our time and walk away with your health intact.

 

And as far as the strikeouts and pitch recognition go... maybe you would have significantly less k's if he you didn't STARE at the first pitch 100% of the time as it comes straight down broadway for strike one.

 

Blurred is not isolated to post concussion symptoms.  It can be linked to a change in your vision as you get older, starring at bright lights (the sun) too often and many other causes.  Seems to me like this is all being carefully orchestrated to justify his decline in production.  I just don't buy it, I just don't.

[TwinCityGuy]

First off Great article, you defended a guy of criticism by making criticism of your own.  The podium of which you have, to share your opinions shrunk some with your rant on decision making. 

Anyways, I didn't see too much criticism of Mauer Pre-concussions that he couldn't hit a baseball.  The criticism came from that he is 6'5 and 230 LBS, and he hits slappers to the opposite field.  With constant struggle in big moments.   This isn't what any fan of any franchise wants to see out of their highest paid player, especially when our team is in bottom third of the team salary.  Being a hometown hero you have double duties, perform and maintain fun personality that other Minnesotans are proud of. He had performed well and struggled to gain acceptance as a person who we want to be the face of Minnesota.  No matter how much the media loves Joe and shows their support for this nice guy, which I heard he genuinely is, it will not matter until he shows a little fire or life with his success.  His personality that fans associate with him is plain old "Average Joe".

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

I don't buy it.  It's been 2+ years since his "concussion."   Not sure when it became multiple concussions per the linked article but that's a story for a different day.  By the way, Joe is off to an early start with the excuses for 2016. Not a good sign. 

 

 

Not a good sign, I'd agree, but not with out precedent:  see Morneau, Justin.