Come to Think of it: Anxiety Disorder in MLB a Growing Trend

Recently, on the Chicago sports radio station WSCR, a local host stated that anxiety disorder is simply the "disabled list for bad." I hope that's not true, but it's a line of thinking that is difficult to simply dismiss.

Baseball players are being placed on baseball's DL with what is being termed "social anxiety disorder" in droves this year. So is this just an excuse for teams to get bad performers off the roster for awhile?

Three players have been diagnosed with this disorder or some stress-related illness thus far. The latest to return from this excuse is Cardinals shortstop Khalil Greene.

St. Louis ignored the statistics and acquired Greene, apparently thinking he was going to have an epiphany of sorts and become a good ballplayer.

Alas, it wasn't going to happen, so was it off to the DL for the "bad"? Or, was he really suffering from a mental illness?

Through his own words, Detroit's Dontrelle Willis has increased the suspicion that this is simply a move by teams to alleviate themselves of bad players.

For the affable Tigers pitcher said he felt great and was ready to pitch, yet Detroit put the lefty on the DL with anxiety disorder in June for the second time this season.

Willis insists he doesn't have such a disorder. "I don't feel like I have any nervousness out there. I'm just a guy who really cares about being competitive and that's the bottom line," he said, according to MLB.com.

Perhaps Dontrelle, but you've been simply awful, so maybe it was time for you, too, to join the DL for the bad. Or, perhaps you just don't understand your own illness. We just don't know which is true.

You can't blame people for wondering.

Willis has won just one game in 14 starts since being traded from Florida before the 2008 season. Since he can't be sent down to the minors without being subject to waivers, and he doesn't have an injury, some reason has to be made to put him on the DL.

Hello, anxiety disorder.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to the increasing number of players being placed on the disabled list due to anxiety, stress and other emotional/mental issues.

The first is those that feel empathetic. Many of us have either had these kinds of problems or know someone who has. And just because you're a millionaire baseball player doesn't make you immune from those problems.

The other side feels that this is just an excuse for teams to temporarily send away players who are performing poorly.

Hopefully, the latter isn't the case because this disorder is very real, and a damn serious condition, and shouldn't be misused.

One player who obviously doesn't fall into that second category is the Reds' Joey Votto. He was hitting .357 when Cincinnati put him on the DL with "stress-related issues." So he obviously wasn't put on the DL for performance reasons.

Look, if the diagnosis of stress is real and honest, then you simply can't expect a player to take 15 days off and return to form. It just doesn't work like that.

True anxiety disorders require treatment that may include medication that will take time to get used to. I know, because this happened to me some years ago when I was working in a very stressful job and I started to take the work home with me.

The medication can cause unpleasant side affects, and at least initially, makes one very sleepy all the time.

Not only that, but if the problem is serious enough, it requires some other treatments which may include regular counseling and even psychotherapy, so to expect someone to simply walk back into the same environment that put that person in the situation in the first place is illogical.

Of course, if you're working at a 9-to-5 job like most of us, you simply can't afford to take that much time off.

But these guys certainly can.

But I consider this newfound willingness to admit to mental problems a very positive trend.

In the old days of baseball, a player's manhood would have been questioned for sitting out with a mental illness. In fact, until very recently, it was unheard of for a team to use the disabled list for such a reason.

But if these problems are real, then I applaud major league baseball for recognizing that mental problems are a serious concern. If it's just a convenient excuse for bad players, then shame on baseball and something must be done to stop this now.

So how did this change occur? How did players begin to accept being recognized for such problems instead of hiding mental disorders with a diagnosis of a pulled hamstring or some similar physical ailment?

According to Sporting News, Padres GM Kevin Towers believes this is indicative of changes in society in general.

"This generation expresses themselves a lot more than maybe they did 15, 20 years ago," Towers says. "I don't think that's a bad thing. It's a good thing...Years ago, you might find yourself out of the game because you were afraid to come out and say what you were dealing with."

Reds manager Dusty Baker blames the increased pressure of today's game for the increase in stress among players.

"This is a high-pressure world," says Baker, who considers Votto a model pro on and off the field. "There's more pressure to win. There's people who throw the money in your face all the time. There's more (media) coverage. If you do well, you see it 15 times. If you do poorly, you see it 25 times."

When a player is truly suffering from such an illnes, he deserves our sympathy. Yet we can't help but wonder about the motives of some clubs.

After the steroids debacle, we just don't view baseball with the same set of trusting eyes as we used to. And that's a shame, come to think of it.