You know what the real title of this article was: “Freeman gets day off.”
Let me explain: my friend was listening to YouTube’s MLB Game of the Week, & heard them say in the broadcast that Freddie Freeman, the reigning National League MVP, was taking a MH day off. Of course I was overjoyed when I heard that from her. This type of transparency from a top player is almost never shared.
We hear a lot of different categorizations – “rest day”… “being given the day off.” But we almost never hear the phrase I/we in this space have wanted to hear for so long: DNP – MH.
And so, I went & googled: Freddie Freeman + Mental Health, & nothing came up in the titles of any of the articles. Just more cliches. BUT, the title I used here, did come up in the actual body of the article – a quote from Freddie’s Manager, Brian Snitker. He added:
“I look at how guys react & things,” [Body language] was probably one of the things that I was like, ‘OK, it’s time, he needs to have a little mental blow here for a day.’”
He continued: “He’s fine. He’s just grinding through like we all are. He’s just a player grinding to get it done & he’s struggling a little bit. You know what? That’s OK if you need a day off. That’s all right. You’re human.”
It made me think to why players are out of lineups for physical health reasons. They don’t ONLY take off for something as severe as “torn ACL.” They take off for things like: strained hamstring, muscle pull, tenderness.
Why is it socially acceptable for them to take off to rest something that isn’t 100% healthy w their physical body…but if their brain is off, it’s only semi-acceptable to take time away for Major Depression?
What are we doing? We are causing ppl to play “injured” for fear of what it will look like?? Well, Freddie has been in a major slump. He’s struggled w things at home. My guess is, this time off will eventually do him well.
We NEED breaks to work on ourselves. Why do we wait for far end of the spectrum symptoms? Think about how a change here could improve health & productivity – from pros on down to Little League, & outside of sports.
