Anna McDonald writes a great article based on an interview with former catcher Mike Matheny, whose career was ended by a series of concussions.

When Matheny first landed on the DL with a concussion he had his own set of concerns to deal with. “The first nine months were really scary. It took almost 18 months until I felt like I could do things that I was doing right before I was hurt. That was a pretty scary time and very eye opening.”

“My problems were always with the cognitive stuff, not being able to put things together or even being able to speak right at times. It was bizarre how my concussions went. The headaches and that sort of stuff were there, but they weren’t any big deal to me. I could just tell my mind wasn’t working right.”

Mike’s concussions did lead to better recognition of the problem and treatment for players:

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program is the world leader in diagnosis, evaluation and management of the neurocognitive effects of sports-related concussions. The assistant director of the program, Dr. Michael Collins, told me, “Major League Baseball has done a great job in recent years in handling and treating concussions. The fruits of that are born out of Mike Matheny and his injury. He was a crucial element to a lot of teams understanding what this injury can do.”

In part because of the UPMC concussion center, today Mike Matheny feels few effects of his post concussion symptoms. “Every once in a while,” he said, “when I’m doing labor-related stuff, my heart rate goes up a little, but for the most part, cognitively it has healed.”

The whole article is well worth the read. With more concussions happening in the field, I wonder how long it will be before helmets are worn the entire game.