During his playing days for several Major League Baseball clubs, Ryan Freel was lauded as a high-energy Swiss Army knife-type player, who was unafraid to crash into walls or engage in collisions.
That style of play may have led to his tragic suicide, according to new reports. Freel was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound last year, and a new study of his brain revealed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, more commonly known as CTE.
The revelation of Freel's CTE, on the heels of a controversial ban on collisions at home plate, is making waves as baseball is taking strides to keep players safe. Head injuries have become the topic du jour in the NFL and NHL; football players in particular have been suing the league in waves claiming that the NFL hid information from them about the severe effects head injuries have later in life after their careers are over.
"One of the things [Chris] Nowinski brought up, we're keeping track of pitch counts, can we keep track of how many guys are hit on the head?" Clark Vargas, Freel's stepfather said. Nowinski is the founder of the Sports Legacy Institute, which aided in the discovery of CTE in Freel.
This revelation also serves as a measure of closure and comfort for Freel's loved ones, including his daughters. "Oh yes [it's helpful], especially for the girls," Norma Vargas, Freel's mother said. "We adults can understand a little better. It's a closure for the girls who loved their dad so much, and they knew how much their dad loved them. It could help them understand why he did what he did. Maybe not now, but one day they will."
Freel suffered 10 reported concussions during his eight-year career, and once made headlines with bizarre claims of an imaginary friend. "He's a little guy who lives in my head who talks to me and I talk to him," Freel had said. "Everybody thinks I talk to myself, so I tell 'em I'm talking to Farney."
Freel played for five clubs in his career, the Blue Jays, Reds, Orioles, Cubs and Royals. He was a career .268 hitter and smacked 22 home runs with 122 RBI in the bigs.
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