How Have Concussions Become Such a Rampant Concern in a Non-Contact Sport?

Something strange happened to New York Yankees reserve infielder Eric Chavez on Wednesday. He had to leave the Bombers' game against the Baltimore Orioles in the fifth inning in the middle of an at-bat, and he was ultimately taken for brain and spine scans.

As told by the New York Daily News, Chavez hurt himself diving for a ball down the third-base line in the top of the fifth inning. It didn't look like anything too serious when it happened (MLB.com has the highlight), but the play resulted in dizziness that Chavez just couldn't shake.

He was ultimately diagnosed with “whiplash and a possible concussion.”

Now, Chavez is known as an injury-prone player, so you can be excused if your first reaction was to say, "A concussion from that?!"

But let's not take concussions too lightly. They're a hot-button topic in the sports world, and it's only becoming more and more apparent that baseball is not immune to the concussion epidemic.

You'd think it would be, as baseball is a non-contact sport that doesn't abuse the heads of its players, unlike football and hockey. If Chavez did indeed suffer a concussion, it's alarming because the injury came on a play when there was no contact whatsoever. That's a sign that anything can trigger a concussion.

This makes Chavez's (possible) concussion different from recent notable concussions in baseball. The two players who immediately spring to mind are Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau and New York Mets outfielder Jason Bay. Morneau suffered a concussion when he took a knee to the head while trying to break up a double play, and Bay suffered a concussion when he slammed into an outfield wall at Dodger Stadium.

Both incidents happened in July of 2010, and concussions robbed both Morneau and Bay of a lot of games. Neither of them have been the same since (though admittedly, Bay was declining even before his concussion).

Morneau may as well be the poster boy for concussions in baseball. He suffered his first concussion on July 7th, 2010. Since then, he's suffered additional concussions, and he admitted before the start of the 2012 season that his concussion problems may be career-threatening.

Here's what he told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

"

Well, I don’t think there will be a career if it’s something I’m dealing with. That’s the reality of the whole thing. I’m obviously not going to continue to mess around with this if it continues to be a problem. There comes a point where you can only torture yourself for so long.

It’s something I love to do but you keep preparing and you keep being left out, that’s something that nobody wants to go through. Obviously it’s been a tough winter that way. I try not to think about that kind of stuff. Obviously it’s crossed my mind and it’s something I’ve had to think about but when that stuff comes into my mind I continue to look for something positive, and look how far I’ve come in the last week or in the last month and just hope it continues to go well.

"

These comments came as a shock, but Morneau has basically been feeling concussion symptoms on and off ever since his collision with John McDonald in July of 2010. Dealing with concussion symptoms has become a part of his life. And though he's been healthy this season, both he and the Twins know that it won't take much to trigger his concussion woes.

If Morneau is forced into early retirement, he won't be the first MLB player to retire due to concussion problems. As pointed out by the USA Today, both Corey Koskie and now-St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had to retire early in 2006 because of their inability to recover from concussions.

It would be great if there were more examples from the past to bring up, but none really come to mind. As is the case in the NFL and NHL, the concussion epidemic is a relatively new problem that's only getting more problematic.

Concussions are not a new injury. The reason they have become such a big problem, in baseball and elsewhere, is because people are more aware of them. Thanks to various studies (see the USA Today link), it is known that concussions are long-term injuries that cannot be cured in one fell swoop, and the NFL's concussion problem has shown that concussions can be slow killers.

Major League Baseball officially adopted new concussion protocols in 2011 so the league could at least be ready to deal with concussions when they happen. New procedures for evaluating players after certain "incidents" occur are in place, and MLB also created a new seven-day disabled list for players with concussions.

This is a system that needed to be created, and it's a system that could have altered history just a few years earlier.

Think back, if you will, to the 2003 American League Division Series between the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A's. In Game 5, Johnny Damon was involved in a brutal head-on collision with Damian Jackson when the two were trying to catch a fly ball. Damon was knocked unconscious, and he was ultimately diagnosed with a "significant concussion," according to the Associated Press.

Yet Damon returned to action just a few days later during the ALCS against the New York Yankees. He just rubbed some dirt on it, as the old-timers would have, and then went out and played.

Damon, however, admitted that he suffered migraine headaches during the ensuing offseason and during the first two months of the 2004 season, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Physically, I'm all right," Damon said. "I just have that headache thing again."

Just think about what the reaction would be if Morneau were to come out and say this exact same thing now. No doubt somebody would tell him that he needed to retire immediately.

If MLB had had a concussion policy in 2003, Damon likely would have been put on the shelf for a long time. And if he knew the dangers of concussions that we know all about now, he too probably would have entertained notions of early retirement, as Morneau did.

It's been almost nine years since Damon's collision with Jackson, and the good news is that MLB has come a long way with its concussion protocol and awareness. Both things were basically nonexistent in the early 2000s, and now the slightest concussion scare immediately becomes an issue that must be dealt with. This is a good thing.

However, there are still changes to be made. Damon, Morneau and Bay all suffered their concussions on plays where there was clear and significant head trauma. These are the things MLB has trained itself to deal with, but the Chavez concussion raises a new red flag.

When Chavez suffered his injury, there was no warning sign. Joe Girardi says Chavez complained of dizziness when he returned to the dugout, but nobody thought to check him out for a concussion on the spot, and Girardi himself can't really be blamed for not taking Chavez out of the game. The play he hurt himself on just looked so harmless.

It's a scenario that should teach MLB some new lessons. The league doesn't have to worry about its players taking repeated blows to the head, but it needs to realize that concussions are injuries that can happen at any time and on any type of play.

Major League Baseball will therefore be a canary in a coalmine of sorts. Contact sports like football and hockey are finding out how dangerous concussions are. Baseball, a non-contact sport, could reveal that concussions are more dangerous than anybody knows.