MLB's Role in Reducing the Stigma of Mental Illness?

As ravid baseball fans are no doubt aware of (or maybe not) Khalil Greene, of the St. Louis Cardinals, is on the DL with not a physical injury, but for social anxiety disorder. In a similar situation, Dontrelle Willis also spent time on the DL this year for another mental illness (can't remember what). These are the first two instances in which I've ever heard of players going on the DL or missing games due to mental illness, although I'm sure it has happened before (a little help?). As one who is very familiar with mental illness I can attest to a social stigma, especially attached to men, that exists against mental illness, as well as its debilitating effect on one's ability to even take care of themselves, let alone successfully perform at their occupation at a consistently high level. I find Greene and Willis' stints on the DL with the cause fully disclosed kind of refreshing, especially given the tough-guy, invincible, controlled masculinity that's so espoused in professional sports in the United States. Will acknowledging that one's performance on the field, or whatever the competitive enviornment, has lessened due to mental illness totally reduce the stigma against mental illness? Probably not. Will it help? Probably. But one thing is for sure: it's nice to see athletes admitting their condition and not having the press (as far as I know) trashing them.

Three Thursday "What the Fucks?"

Here's the first of what may never be a series of installments I like to call "What the fucks?" Without further adieu.....

1. A couple nights ago ESPN 2 was showing Super Bowl XXX2. Nope, I don't know why, and I didn't watch it.

2. The St. Louis Cardinals have like 8 outfielders........but no closer. Here's an idea: trade one of those 8 outfielders, so you can give the guys deserving of 450-600 ABs ABs, for a closer. So then you have a closer, cause those are good. And shit....throw in Skip Shumaker too so that you can get a real second baseman. Oh, and call up Joe Mather out of sheer principle (I went to middle school with him and his dad was a bit too "friendly" with the 7th grade girls he taught, if you know what I mean). He's got power, and a sicko dad who never taught again and had to move to Arizona after that all went down. Although his dad said that it would be good to have me (a tall, lanky, left hander) pitching for the high school team (he was the coach). Unfortunately my coaches never taught me how to throw a breaking ball, or even how to grip a changeup. Thus....my complete shelling at the hands of the Bonners Ferry High School Badgers during my freshman year. Yep, never pitched again. You could say I was effectively wild, but there was nothing effective about it. Would have helped to have a curveball that was also non-effectively wild.

3. Todd Bertuzzi is in the NHL? Didn't fucking kill a guy on the ice? Or maybe paralyze the dude? Oh well, him and the Flames won last night, so I'm down with that.