Belt ready for fresh start after fourth concussion
He admittedly fell into depression after concussion
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> The last time Brandon Belt stepped into the batter’s box against the Arizona Diamondbacks, his season came to a sudden, scary ending.
Sitting on a career-high 18 home runs for the year, Belt dug in against lefthander Anthony Banda for his 451st plate appearance of the season. A curveball that struck the side of Belt’s helmet made it his last.
The Giants’ first baseman fell to the ground stunned, needing assistance from the training staff as he walked off the field. Belt was soon diagnosed with the fourth concussion of his baseball career, a dangerous injury that changed his way of life for the immediate future.
“Initially, it’s always scary because when you get hit in the head, you know something is wrong and you feel like something is off,” Belt said. “The first thing you think about is your family, and it’s pretty emotional when that happens.”
On Tuesday, Belt played in his third Cactus League game and faced the D’backs for the first time since the Aug. 4 hit by pitch that ended his season. When he left the game this time around, it was on his own terms. Manager Bruce Bochy pulled Belt after a 3-for-3 day in the Giants’ 14-12 win.
“He’s (Belt) putting it in play, and he’s hitting it where they aren’t right now,” Bochy said. “That’s what Brandon does well. I saw a little bit of a shift, and we were sitting there going, ‘He’s going to hit that fly ball to left,’ and he did.”
Concussion symptoms robbed Belt of a sense of normalcy in August and September, and in an interview with The Athletic, Belt said he fell into a state of “depression.”
This spring, Belt arrived with a sense of determination and a refreshing perspective gained on his road to recovery. While there are still left-handed first basemen growing up in the Bay Area who will model their games after Belt’s, he understands there’s a contingent of aspiring athletes who suffered concussions that could have a new player to look up to.
“I hope I can be one of those guys that people can look at and say, ‘hey he went through a pretty traumatic brain injury,’ ” Belt said. “Nothing too crazy but it’s one of those things where if you put in the work and give yourself some time, you’ll get over it and you will be able to get back out onto the field.”
Belt was initially uneasy after suffering his concussion, but he said Tuesday that conversations with brain injury experts who urged him to take as much time to recover as possible helped put his mind at ease.
Though his first few live batting practices sessions didn’t yield great results, Belt is now peppering the right-field lawn at Scottsdale Stadium during pregame hitting drills and is seeing the ball well.
“I don’t have any thoughts that I’m going to get hit again, I’m not worried about that anymore,” Belt said. “If it happens, it happens. But I think just getting out there and saying to yourself that you’re over it, now it’s time to play. Just getting back on the field kind of puts you at ease.”
• Trailing 12-8 entering the ninth inning, the Giants mounted a massive comeback against the D’Backs on Tuesday. Nonroster invitee Kyle Jensen smashed a walk-off grand slam to cap off a six-run inning and took the team lead with his second home run of the spring.
“It’s awesome to rally like that and come together as a team and everyone was just putting good at-bats together, that’s when it starts to get fun.”
Jensen’s first career hit in the majors came in 2016 while he was playing for Arizona. It was a home run off current teammate Madison Bumgarner.