The Minnesota Twins have asked Justin Morneau to skip the team's annual fan festival this weekend so he can "keep concentrating on his recovery from a concussion."Twins GM Bill Smith says that although Morneau has been working out hard, he is still 7-to-10 days away from starting any baseball activities, such as swinging a bat. I'm not sure how hard Morneau has been working out, if he's not even capable of swinging a bat yet, but that's a different story.
Here's what I don't understand: Morneau suffered his concussion on July 7, 2010. That's six and a half months ago.
Considering how much attention the media has devoted to concussions lately, I am fully aware that they are very serious medical conditions. They haven't been taken seriously in the past (by players, teams, leagues, and medical personnel) and I am glad to see that proper precautions are slowly but gradually being implemented to protect the athletes. So in no way am I suggesting that Morneau or the Twins should rush him back onto the field. They should absolutely do what's necessary to help him get back to full strength.
But the fact remains that almost 27 weeks have passed since The Concussion and Morneau hasn't swung a bat since.
Here's video of Giants cornerback Aaron Ross sacking Chicago QB Jay Cutler in Week 4 (start at 1:10 mark). Ouch. As you might expect, Cutler suffered a concussion. He missed the rest of the game, as well as Week 5. But then he came back in Week 6 and didn't miss a snap the rest of the season, which only ended on Sunday after the Bears' loss in the NFC Championship Game.
Same with Aaron Rodgers, who suffered two concussions and is on his way to the Super Bowl. Here's footage of his head hitting the ground in Week 14. He sat out Week 15, and came back in Week 16 to destroy the Giants by completing 25-of-37 for 404 yards, 4 TDs, and a passer rating of 139.9.
Now take a look at footage of Morneau's July 7 concussion. Does Morneau's head crash into the shortstop's knee any harder or softer than Rodgers or Cutler's head hit the turf? I don't see a major observable difference.
Thus, the question remains. What is going on with Justin Morneau? Aaron Rodgers played arguably the best game by an NFL QB this season only 2 weeks after suffering his 2nd concussion of the year, and Morneau still hasn't picked up a bat nearly 7 months after his first? Is there more going on behind the scenes than we know about? Are the Twins (or Morneau himself) not disclosing something about his health? Did he have a preexisting condition that has been aggravated by this injury?
And, as Twins fans and fantasy baseball players are surely wondering, how will this affect Morneau's 2011 season (and beyond)? Is he going to be the same player? Or is he going to need frequent trips to the DL to deal with ongoing post-concussion symptoms? Because a recovery this long seems very unusual for a modern professional athlete. Morneau is a big, strong corner infielder with tons of power. Shouldn't he be back to full strength by now?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-concussion_syndrome
ReplyDeletethe above link talks about post concussion syndrome.
This is from webmd: A concussion is a brain injury that is caused by a sudden blow to the head or to the body. The blow shakes the brain inside the skull, which temporarily prevents the brain from working normally.
Your brain is a soft organ that is surrounded by spinal fluid and protected by your hard skull. Normally, the fluid around your brain acts like a cushion that keeps your brain from banging into your skull. But if your head or your body is hit unexpectedly hard, your brain can suddenly crash into your skull and temporarily stop working normally.
The way I have always understood concussions is that no mri or doctor can tell how bad a concussion was or what damage was caused. I do know that when your brain crashes into your skull that can not be a good thing.
Yeah, Mister Zonk is right on the money. It's not a good thing and people have varying degrees of post-concussion syndrome. As I said before, anything you could possibly confuse with Lou Gehrig's Disease is not something I question people from taking a while to come back from.
ReplyDeleteI realize that post-concussion syndrome is very serious, and I know that concussions vary in severity, so players need varying amounts of time to come back.
ReplyDeleteBut 6.5 months?? I've never seen a pro athlete in any sport take that long. And we've all seen nastier concussion-inducing hits.
The question isn't what Morneau is suffering from. Or how serious it is. Or how serious the Twins and MLB should take this issue.
The question is why Morneau is *still* unable to swing a bat from a concussion that he sustained on *July 7, 2010* because that is an exceptionally long recovery period, by modern athletic standards.
I think it you woke up with headaches every day, you wouldn't really want to go swing a baseball bat. Morneau has had a history of concussions from youth hockey and such. Players have retired over less.
ReplyDeleteAnd there we have it: a preexisting condition. His youth history of concussions might be hampering his recovery from this one.
ReplyDeleteThink this hurts his performance in 2011? Beyond 2011? And what of his fantasy baseball status? All interesting questions.
Well, this explanation ("No two concussions are alike") wasn't precisely what I was looking for, but at least someone else noticed Justin Morneau's unusual situation (cf. Josh Beckett).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/sports/baseball/08morneau.html?_r=1&hp