Being a famous athlete puts you in the spotlight. Because of this, every piece of your life becomes public knowledge; from the places you vacation to the people you date and even to your overall health.
Through the years, many famous baseball players have been the victim of various diseases and illnesses. Some of these baseball players were able to treat the disease while others eventually lost their battle.
Take a trip down memory lane and learn about the many diseases that have affected baseball players through the years.
Photo: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley via Instagram.
Lou Gehrig and the Ice Bucket Challenge
Lou Gehrig may just be the most famous baseball player known for a disease. After all, he has a disease named after him. Lou Gehrig, otherwise known on the field as The Iron Horse, played first base for the New York Yankees for 17 years. In 1939, Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS, or what some currently refer to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a progressive disease in which the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord become degenerate, resulting in paralysis.
Ron Santo
Ron Santo was an American baseball player for the Chicago Cubs. Santo was an All American player, earning many achievements and accolades throughout his career despite battling type 1 diabetes. In fact, Santo hid his diabetes for more than 80 percent of his career. After his retirement, he ended up having the lower half of both his knees amputated. Santo died in 2010.
Brett Butler
Brett Butler was an outfielder for the Miami Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1990s. In May 1996, Butler found out that he had squamous cell carcinoma in his tonsils, which required surgery and intensive treatment. Just four months after surgery, Butler was back on the field for the Dodgers, and even scored the winning run.
Ben Petrick
Ben Petrick is a former baseball player who had careers in both the minor and major leagues. He played for the Colorado Rockies and the Detroit Tigers from 1999 to 2004. In 2004, after noticing that his statistics and skill had fallen, he announced his retirement from baseball and disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Josh Hamilton
Whether for recreation, medical or steroidal use, many baseball players have been affected by some form of drug abuse. Josh Hamilton is the poster boy for baseball players with a drug problem. Hamilton suffered from drug addiction and alcohol abuse, and finally decided to fight his illness when confronted by his grandmother. Although he has been sober since 2004, in order to stay on track, Hamilton undergoes drug testing three times every week. And when his team achieves something great, Hamilton’s teammates opt to celebrate with ginger ale instead of alcohol to accommodate their teammate and keep him sober.
Baseball is America’s past time, and through the years, America has come to love many different players. Unfortunately, although we look up to these athletes, they’re not superheroes, and they too are affected by illness and disease just like everyone else.
Authorities have begun an investigation into the causes of Sunday’s train crash in the Bronx area of New York City in which four people were killed and more than 60 injured.
The 05:54 from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station derailed as it went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station.
Reports say it was travelling faster than the speed limit in the area.
The train’s event recorder, similar to a flight recorder, has been recovered.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent investigators to the site with instructions to inspect the overturned cars and interpret information from the recorder.
The Federal Railroad Administration has also sent their own team of investigators.
Officials have identified the deceased as Donna Smith, 54, James Lovell, 58, James Ferrari, 59, and Ahn Kisook, 35. Three of the dead were found outside the train, and one was found inside.
NTSB board member Earl Weener said his teams would be on site for several days documenting evidence.
“Our mission is not just to understand what happened, but why it happened, with the intent of preventing it happening again,” he said.
On Monday, a second data recorder was found in the train’s rear locomotive. Earl Weener said investigators hoped to download information on the speed and settings of the train from that recorder.
The Metro-North train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station derailed as it went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station
Some 26,000 weekday riders on the railroad were warned to brace for crowded trains during the first morning commute after the derailment.
Train service south of Spuyten Duyvil is “suspended until further notice”, the train’s operator, Metro-North, said on Monday morning. Buses were being provided to the New York subway system.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said the bend where the derailment occurred was in a slow-speed area.
The train appeared to be going “a lot faster” than normal as it approached the bend coming into the station, passenger Frank Tatulli told WABC-TV.
The speed limit on the curve is 30 mph, compared with 70 mph in the area approaching it, Earl Weener said.
An official from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is quoted by the New York Times as saying that the train operator had reported that it was going into the turn too fast and that he had performed an emergency braking maneuver.
The operator told the first rescuers to reach the scene that he had “dumped” the brakes, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Dumping the brakes is said to be a last-resort move that has the effect of slamming on the emergency brakes on all the cars of a train at once. It is usually done to avert a collision with another train or a vehicle at a grade-level crossing, the New York Times reports.
A 2008 federal rail-safety law requires commuter and freight rail lines to install systems to prevent derailing caused by excessive speed, known as positive train control, by the end of 2015.
Metro-North is in the process of installing the technology.
A section of line between the Bronx and part of Westchester County could be closed for a week or more and New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo warned commuters to expect long delays.
Metro-North serves commuters from New York City’s northern suburbs. It is not part of the New York City subway system.
The accident was the second passenger train derailment this year for the rail service, which, until Sunday, had never experienced a passenger death in an accident in its 31-year history.
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At least four people have been killed and 63 injured in a passenger train crash in the Bronx area of New York City.
Eleven of the injured are believed to be in a critical condition in hospital.
The Metro-North train’s locomotive and carriages derailed as the train went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station.
At least one eyewitness said the train – the 05:54 from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Station – was travelling much faster than normal at the time.
None of the carriages went into the adjacent Hudson or Harlem rivers – although pictures from the scene suggest this nearly happened.
The train appeared to be going “a lot faster” than normal as it approached the curve coming into the station, passenger Frank Tatulli told WABC-TV.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said the curve where the derailment occurred was in a slow speed area, and that the train’s black box recorder should be able to tell how fast the train was travelling.
The Metro-North train’s locomotive and carriages derailed as the train went into a bend in the railway line near Spuyten Duyvil station
Joel Zaritsky was travelling on the train to attend a dental convention in New York City.
“I was asleep and I woke up when the car started rolling several times,” he told the Associated Press news agency.
“Then I saw the gravel coming at me, and I heard people screaming. There was smoke everywhere and debris. People were thrown to the other side of the train.”
Speaking to the media near the scene, New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed the casualty figures, adding that the authorities believed everyone at the site has been accounted for and that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was en route to the area to begin an investigation.
“It’s obviously a very tragic situation,” he said.
“The first order of business is to care for the people who were on the train… we’ll wait to see what the NTSB says before speculating as to any causes.”
Metro-North is a rail service that serves commuters from New York City’s northern suburbs. It is not part of the New York City subway system.
Sunday’s accident is the second passenger train derailment this year for the rail service.
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