Bobby Thomson and Lou Gehrig

[sdelmonte]

Two items of note from baseball's history today.

- Bobby Thomson, whose "Shot Heard 'Round the World" might be the most famous home run of all time, passed away today. If you know baseball, or were a fan of MASH, you probably know about it. If not, go here.

- A new study in a journal of neuropathy will suggest that many suspected cases of ALS - aka Lou Gehrig's Disease - seen in athletes and soldiers may actually be the result of cumulative head trauma. Athletes such as Lou Gehrig. In other words, he might not have had the ailment named for him. And it's possible that Gehrig's determination to play no matter what may have led to his untimely passing as he failed to recover properly from many suspected concussions. If this is true, it adds new urgency to the efforts to manage and understand head trauma better. Details can be found here.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I wonder how Ralph Branca is.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

You may find this of interest:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=189014

[the_croupier]

Which also makes me wonder--not for the first time--just how high a price people pay for playing pro football too.

[sdelmonte]

In a discussion about this on a baseball blog, someone posted a quote from an article in the Boston Globe saying that if you play pro football, you WILL sustain brain trauma no matter what. Scary thought.

[the_croupier]

Ugh, that's awful. But not surprising.