Finally a professional sports organization has put together a concrete policy to handle brain trauma. Major League Baseball has created a system to protect their players, which is something that hockey and football as failed to do. Mind you, there were only 8 concussions in all of baseball in the 2010 season, while the NFL had 1 concussion in 60% of all their games.
The players must be seen by a doctor and have neurological testing done and submit a Return to Play protocol to the doctors belonging to MLB, not the team. This is key, since doctors (as anyone) can be influenced or pressured by the owners and coaches to return a player sooner than is safe. The doctors for MLB will likely be less bias and have the players/umpires best interest in mind. In order for the player to return to the game, they must pass neurological testing. They must also miss at least 7 days of training/games, regardless of symptoms.
I’m glad to see that someone is finally looking out for professional athletes. Congratulations to the MLB players association for getting this done. There is no reason why the NFL or NHL or even NBA should not adopt this system. There has already been one player to use this policy, a Blue Jay! He returned today after running into a third baseman’s knee while sliding head first, last Sunday.
Let’s watch and see what happens over the next few months. Will exceptions be made for higher priced athletes? Can the MLB doctors be bought or influenced the same as the team doctors (I am not implying this happens with all team doctors, but it does happen).
So let’s rejoice in a step forward for professional sports. I imagine that other leagues will follow suit soon enough.
Check out my poll on concussion in the right panel, under “pages”.
jenkmark 