The fragile road back
After a batter gets beaned, concerns often linger about concussions and confidence
Nori Aoki was tentative in the batter’s box. And in batting practice. Even in the indoor cage, when someone lobbed pitches from short range.
Then the Giants left fielder, Aoki had a particularly rough time recovering from a concussion after taking a Jake Arrieta fastball off his head in August 2015.
“Aoki was bailing out of the box, kind of afraid of the ball,” batting coach Hensley Meulens said. “It’s different for everybody. You didn’t see him reacting like he normally does. The fear of the ball striking you again stays for some guys.”
The beanball dates to the inception of baseball, when hitters wore no head protection, and the pitch continues to be a scary element of the game, even with modern helmets featuring a carbon-fiber shell designed to withstand 100 mph pitches.
No helmet will completely prevent concussions, and the Giants have had their share of worries in recent years with
increased awareness of the cumulative effects of injuries to the brain.
Their best player, Buster Posey, is shelved with concussion symptoms after getting beaned by a 94 mph fastball from Arizona’s Taijuan Walker in Monday’s home opener. Posey left the game, and a day later the Giants put him on the sevenday concussion disabled list.
The team is optimistic Posey will be activated when eligible Tuesday or shortly thereafter.
Posey, like all players coming off a concussion, will need to check off several boxes during his recovery period, including regaining the confidence to step back in the batter’s box and face pitchers who may throw high and tight.
The process is a lot tougher for some than others.
“You have a lot of faith the pitcher will put it in the general area he wants to put it in,” said Giants first baseman Brandon Belt, who has had three concussions. “It’s tough sometimes because your first movement after you get hit is to open up and prepare yourself to move out of the way.
“You have to fight that and get back in there and trust yourself and trust the other guy. It’s tough sometimes, though.”
Many players over the years never returned to form after getting beaned, the most prominent cases including Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane, who was forced into retirement after a 1937 beaning, and Tony Conigliaro and Dickie Thon, whose promising careers were cut short by traumatic eye injuries as a result of getting hit. Outfielder Paul Blair played 17 seasons but was never the same player after being beaned in 1970, midway through his career.
In the most drastic case, Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman was pronounced dead the morning after getting hit in the head by a pitch from the Yankees’ Carl Mays in 1920.
Mays was known as a headhunter, purposely throwing at batters. He had few friends, berated teammates for making errors, got fined for throwing a ball into the stands that hit a fan and was rumored to have thrown World Series games.
Others with reputations for throwing at batters, intentionally or not: Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan, Pedro Martinez, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, Early Wynn and Sal Maglie, nicknamed “the Barber” because of the close shaves he gave hitters.
Chapman wasn’t wearing a helmet, of course. In fact, headgear requirements weren’t established for another 36 years, the National League forcing players in 1956 to wear helmets or cap inserts. Two years later, the American League followed.
In 1971, helmets became mandatory, and ear flaps were required starting in 1983.
In 2013, the Collective Bargaining Agreement called for hitters to wear the new Rawlings S100 Pro Comp helmet with a carbon-fiber shell that’s supposed to be 300 percent stiffer and 130 times stronger than the old plastic helmets.
Still, the consequences of getting hit on the helmet can be significant. Giants second baseman Joe Panik didn’t recover until the winter after getting beaned by Matt Moore, now a teammate but then with the Rays, in midJune.
Panik linked his .215 average in 57 games after coming off the disabled list to his concussion. His eyesight initially wasn’t the same, but he insisted he didn’t have trouble mentally or emotionally getting back in the box.
“I never really even thought about it. Seriously,” said Panik, adding it was his first beaning in pro ball. “If
you’re thinking about it, you’re not going to be able to play your game. Your mind will be elsewhere. You get in the box and trust yourself and trust your ability.”
After Aoki was beaned, he tried to play three days later but exited feeling light-headed and went on the sevenday concussion DL. He returned to play 13 games but struggled at the plate and with post-concussion symptoms, so he visited a concussion specialist and sat out the rest of the season.
“He was dizzy for a while,” Meulens said. “With his hand-eye coordination, he wasn’t sure where exactly the ball was even in soft toss.”
Meulens said he noticed no such obstacle with Panik or Belt, who is monitored closely because of his three concussions.
Belt was hit by a pitch in college in May 2009, by an errant throw from Marco Scutaro during batting practice in July 2014 and by a knee while sliding in September 2015.
In early September last season, Belt was hit on the helmet by Cubs reliever Rob Zastryzny but stayed in after being checked by a trainer. There was no concussion diagnosis. It was a glancing blow — he remained upright — but a blow nonetheless.
Concussion awareness has greatly improved since Belt was beaned at the University of Texas and required stitches in his ear. He was cleared to play the next day.
“It didn’t seem that long ago, but as far as concussions go, I feel it’s been ages,” Belt said. “We’ve gotten
so much further in just that amount of time. Then, if you felt good and felt you could play, go ahead and go out there.
“I didn’t feel great, but I wanted to play. Probably wasn’t the best idea, but you’re in the playoffs in college, and I wanted to go.”
Beanings can be far scarier when a hitter is hit in the face, two of the most prominent examples being former Giants infielders Robby Thompson in 1993 and J.T. Snow in 1997.
A pitch by Trevor Hoffman fractured Thompson’s cheekbone and shelved him during the final days of the 1993 NL West race until the last day of the season, when Thompson played with a bloodshot eye and a clear mask. The Giants lost at Dodger Stadium
and didn’t make the playoffs despite winning 103 games.
In a spring training exhibition, Snow was beaned by a 97 mph fastball from the Mariners’ Randy Johnson and sustained a fractured orbital bone near his left eye.
Snow was 29 and went on to collect 28 homers and 104 RBIs in 1997, his first Giants season, and to play for another decade. Thompson was 31, got beaned again the following spring by Colorado’s Mike Harkey, and played parts of three more seasons while dealing with a series of injuries.