Ryan Freel commits suicide

[Papa Pillman]

Former Major Leaguer Ryan Freel was found dead last night, after apparently performing a sad ode to Kurt Kobain.

Freel played eight seasons in the bigs, mostly with Cincinnati. His best years were '04-'06, he stole 110 bases, made some spectacular defensive plays, and posted an 8.5 WAR in that three year stretch.

This really hit home for me as I saw Freel play countless games live during his time with the Reds, and he was a bit of a cult hero for the fanbase. Never getting to see my favorite all-time player, Pete Rose, play during his prime, I can honestly say that no baseball player for any club I ever witnessed played the game harder than Freel. The guy was 10% talent, and 90% hustle. He will be missed greatly, and remembered fondly by Reds supporters.

Freel had a concussion history due to his affinity for throwing his body into walls and other unforgiving objects. I'm sure that, like in the Junior Seau tragedy, those concussions will take a large part of the blame.

It should also be noted however that Freel had some pretty serious mental issues. He heard and talked to a voice that he referred to as midget in his head that he had nicknamed "Farney". He would hear "Farney" talk to him, and they would carry on conversations. He would also at times credit "Farney" for being responsible for plays that he would make on the field. Hopefully his final act wasn't an attempt to silence "Farney".

This is a sad day for fans of one of the sports greatest "hustle guys". RIP Ryan Freel.

I know this also hits home for me and many other wrestling fans, because it also brings back sad memories of one of my favorite ever wrestling performers, Chris Benoit.

Anyone else familiar with Freel who has anything to share? Or anyone who wants to comment on this trend of athlete head trauma and eventual suicide?

 

[Megatron]

I looked to see when Freel suffered his head injuries and he had one in both 2007 (which from the description sounded really bad) and in 09. While that would be sufficient time between them where you would think he would be fine, I'm going to guess that the first one occurred probably about a year or two before concussions really became a hot topic issue. I'm not gonna speculate and say that concussions were his problem and caused him to commit suicide, although you have to wonder. Couple that with him talking to 'Farney', you have to wonder if he was even in the right state of mind.

I don't want to jump to conclusions before the full report is in, but I would be shocked if head trauma didn't play some sort of role in this tragedy. It's been prevalent among NFL players in the past 5-10 years, and even though it's not as common in MLB, hopefully they take the right steps to try to help prevent more events like this becoming common.

Tragic, and RIP.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

I'm not a Reds fan, but he was a guy who had a reputation as a hell of a hustle player. To make it in pro sports you have to be talented, but like you said, he was a guy who gave 100% every day. If his talent levels matched his heart and effort levels, the guy would be a HOFer for sure. It is a sad and tragic loss.

Like has been said, I won't be shocked if his head injuries play into this. You hear a lot of people complain about sports being to sissied up and not being as manly as they once were, but look at a majority of the guys who played back then. Even guys who don't take their own life suffer. Look at Johnny Unitas, one of the best QBs of all time, he lived the last few years of his life barely functioning with no memory of his playing days due to multiple concussions. It isn't an overnight fix, and people will always be injured in sports, but they have to keep working to move safety forward.

 

[smizzy]

Ryan Freel is definitley one guy who was not a superstar, but a ball player who I'll never forget for the heart he put into every aspect of the game. He always stuck out to me whether he was robbing one of my Cardinals of a double or just seeing him on the highlights every night. Really sad.

 

[braveh]

How much money do you think he made in his career?

 

[Papa Pillman]

How much money do you think he made in his career?

Not counting the Minor Leagues, he made $11.55 Million in his career.