ESPN 30 for 30 Short Shows Effect of Childhood Trauma on MLB Player

It’s not necessarily about childhood abuse, but i found the story of Mackey Sasser, a catcher with the New York Mets who’s career ended after he simply couldn’t throw the ball any longer highly interesting. It wasn’t until much later in life that he saw a specialist in the physical effects of childhood trauma that he began to get past the occasional inability to control his throwing motion.

Mackey Sasser was an exceptional catcher for the New York Mets in the late 1980s and early ’90s. He could hit. He could manage a pitching staff. He could nail you trying to steal second base. But one day, there was something Sasser couldn’t do. He couldn’t throw the ball back to the pitcher. Suddenly the most basic act for a catcher was next to impossible for Sasser. What happened? This film explores the mental side of the game and shows how a childhood trauma can come back to overwhelm a professional athlete, and how confronting it can lead to recovery.

You can watch the full story on the Grantland Website.