Making pitch for fellow diabetics
Every now and then, when an inning goes long and he’s standing in the outfield, Adam Duvall gets an unwelcome reminder of his Type 1 diabetes.
He starts to feel jittery or light-headed as his blood sugar level starts to drop.
“I get a little nervous sometimes,” he said. “Like, when is this inning going to end?”
It’s why Duvall always asks the Red Sox relief pitchers to bring an extra bottle of Gatorade or a protein bar out to the bullpen so he can get some help when needed.
“I’ll yell out, ‘Hey, I need some sugar,’ and they’ll get something to me during a pitching change,” Duvall said. “It can get a little scary if you’re out there a long time. I need that quick-acting sugar like from juice.”
Duvall discovered he had Type 1 diabetes in 2012 when he was a Single A player in the Giants organization. He rapidly lost weight, his mouth always felt dry, and he was waking up frequently at night to use the bathroom.
“Just always drained and tired,” he said. “I knew something was wrong.”
A blood test revealed he was a diabetic.
“It was like a smack in the face,” Duvall said. “But then it became finding a way to attack it.”
Duvall learned it was a genetic disease that caused the pancreas to stop producing insulin, the hormone that controls blood glucose levels. It can be controlled with insulin being administered via injection or through a pump, along with a proper diet and exercise.
Duvall plays with a quarter-sized sensor attached to his body and a pump in his back pocket. A thin tube delivers insulin via a small needle in the skin. The pump works continuously to deliver small amounts of insulin.
“I wear it every minute of every day besides when I shower,” Duvall said.
“It’s hooked up 24/7.”
The sensor and pump communicate via Bluetooth and Duvall gets data on his phone to monitor his health. Diabetes doesn’t interfere with playing baseball at all provided Duvall stays alert to the readings from his sensor.
“Every time I’ve changed teams I get with their doctors and go through the process,” Duvall said. “I monitor myself, but they know what to do if I’m going low. I communicate with the medical staff as much as possible.”
Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell is a Type 1 diabetic, as were a number of former players, including Catfish Hunter, Ron Santo, Sam Fuld ,and Dave Hollins.
“There are a few of us in baseball,” Duvall said. “We talk a lot and help each other out.”
One of the recent topics has been the rising cost of insulin. Duvall can afford his insulin prescription, but many others can’t with prices soaring in recent years.
Duvall has partnered with the American Diabetes Association and Eli Lilly, the nation’s largest manufacturer of insulin, to promote its $35 out-of-pocket monthly price cap on the drug.
“There needs to be increased awareness of this affordable insulin so that people who need it can get it,” he said. “This is an option.”
Lilly.com has more details.
“We need the information to be out there,” Duvall said.
Now 34, Duvall has played parts of 10 seasons in the majors. He was an AllStar in 2016 and won a Gold Glove in 2021 when he helped lead the Braves to a World Series title.
His accomplishments become more impressive when you consider Duvall missed his senior year of high school in Kentucky recovering from back surgery and barely played as a freshman at the University of Louisville.
He transferred to a junior college to get playing time, then returned to Louisville and was a 11th-round pick in the 2010 draft.
“I basically missed two years when you do a lot of development as a player,” he said. “That was the first hurdle and the second one was, of course, the diabetes.
“I’d think I’m mentally tougher because of everything that’s happened. I feel like I have a good perspective on things.”
A few other observations on the Red Sox:
Connor Wong started a 2-6-3 double play against the Twins on Tuesday, jumping out from behind the plate to snare a ball tapped a few feet by Max Kepler and firing it to second base.
Globe teammate Alex Speier determined that it was the first such play made by a Red Sox catcher since May 5, 1967, also against the Twins in Minnesota. They played at Metropolitan Stadium then.
Twins pitcher Mudcat Grant hit a ball in front of the plate. Bob Tillman threw to Rico Petrocelli and the relay went to George Scott.
When Wong got back to the dugout, Jason Varitek joked that it would have taken him that long to get to the ball. Wong’s athleticism is something unusual in a catcher.
Sports Info Solutions, which tracks injuries, reported that Tanner Houck
was the 12th pitcher this season to be hit by a batted ball and suffer an injury that caused him to leave the game.
There were eight such instances in 2022 and six in 2021.
It could well be happenstance. But there is some concern that pitchers are putting themselves in danger by seeking extra extension when they release the ball. The farther down the mound they go, the less time they have to react to line drives.
The Marlins will be at Fenway Park on Tuesday for a three-game series. Their third base coach is Jody Reed,
who played for the Sox from 1987-92 and was a doubles machine.
Reed hasn’t been back at Fenway in uniform since 1997, when he was with the Tigers in the final year of his career. Here’s hoping he gets a nice reception from the fans.
The Red Sox went from 1901 until nearly halfway through this season without having any players named Hamilton on their roster. Then David Hamilton was called up on Wednesday and Caleb Hamilton on Thursday.
According to Baseball-Reference.com, David Hamilton was the 22,985th player in major league history. It’s amazing to think every player in history could fit in Fenway Park with plenty of room to spare.
Chris Sale threw a simulated game in Fort Myers, Fla., on March 15. He went five innings against four minor leaguers.
One of them was Chase Meidroth ,a 21-year-old infielder who was a fourthround pick last year from the University of San Diego.
Several of the Sox coaches watching Sale that day commented afterward about Meidroth not giving into Sale and having some good at-bats.
Fast forward three months later and Meidroth has an .885 OPS with Double A Portland. He had 22 walks and 22 strikeouts in his first 30 games with the Sea Dogs. Meidroth earned a promotion after only 20 games with Greenville.
Those tough at-bats against Sale in an empty ballpark were a sign of what was to come.