For sixteen years Jorge Posada has been behind the plate for the New York Yankees, and today, he is listed in the line-up as the team’s designated hitter. Of course there have been several factors that have led to such a position change, but of those listed, we come to find that concussions may have played a part in such a change for the five-time all-star.
The catching position is closely associated with debilitating knee issues developing over time in an individual player, as being the rock behind the dish does not come with any ease. It is a difficult position to play, and is but an essential piece to the puzzle for any roster in any level of the game. But what many may look beyond, at least those who have not played the position before, is the fact that catchers are prone to taking balls off of the mask from foul tips. Let’s not forget that they are the other half of the equation during a collision at the plate when a base runner is striving to touch home plate. Catching is associated with pride, and pain.
With that in mind, this is where we come to note Posada’s predicament. It turns out that Posada has battled with symptoms relative to that of what would be considered to be a concussion throughout the extent of his career, and has not necessarily been one to take himself out of the mix when dealing with headaches and feeling ‘not right.’ This is something that manager Joe Girardi, a former Yankee catcher himself, was concerned about.
“He’s experienced things with the headaches and stuff. He had some headaches last year with the concussions, that sort of thing, that we were concerned about,” Girardi said. “When he had that concussion last year, you could see that he was foggy for a couple days.” Continue reading
Daniel Bell was like any kid growing up in Australia, he wanted to play on the hallowed grounds of the AFL. As his journey began playing youth footy he was wearing a helmet for extra head protection. That ended when at the age of 15 he felt both out-of-place on the field with something many others were not wearing and his perception he (more specifically his head) was targeted due to the helmet. 
Each week we scour the web to find concussions in the National Hockey League. We will keep a running tally on that information as the season progresses. However, it is not easy as the NHL has decided that listing injuries as “upper body” or “undisclosed” is a good indicator of actual injuries occurred. Our list is believed to be as accurate as possible, even including injuries that have vague listings but through reports and video analysis should be classified as concussions.
A lot has been made of this change in the kickoff rules, mainly by those that think the game will “inherently” change because of this. I am not so sure we are looking at a doomsday scenario like that. Rather, I do feel that limiting the full speed collisions over the season will in fact reduce the chances of concussions in that particular “subset” of the game.
