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Pirates P Ian Snell contemplated suicide
By Dagger | July 1, 2009
Pirates P Ian Snell admitted to the media today that before requesting to be sent to the minor leagues, he contemplated suicide. His up-and-down ride through MLB over the last few years and media/blogger scrutiny over the past few months sent him over the edge. It’s not very often a guy asks to be demoted down to the minors; he’s obviously going through a tough time. We like Snell and he has all the potential in the world so we hope he picks himself up and gets himself back on track. I’m 90% certain his next start in the majors will be in another uniform as I think a change of scenery and a fresh start might be just what the doctor ordered in this case.
The right hander asked the Pirates manager for a demotion to the minor leagues.
“Whatever anyone thinks, that’s totally fine,” Snell said in the interview.
“Well, since we never played baseball, maybe you can explain it to us, pal?” a reporter asked.
“I’m just going to get my thoughts together, pal,” Snell replied. “You know? I’m not your pal.”
The Pirates agreed to send Snell back to the Indians. Sunday, he blew away the competition in his first start with Indianapolis. After walking the leadoff hitter, he struck out 13 straight batters and finished with 17 strikeouts in the game.
“I just wanted to come out and give them my best and try my best, because I had a lot of things going through my head,” Snell told Eyewitness News. “A lot of demons to get out of me. The best way to do it is go out and pitch.”
But Triple-A hasn’t been much of a challenge for Snell. But why is he playing at this level? Snell says he’s doing it to save his life. A month ago, he says he contemplated suicide.
“Sometimes people do stupid stuff and I had to fight it, not to do something stupid and take my life for myself and from my family and my parents,” he said.
He says, emotionally, he hit rock bottom and has been battling depression. When he had bad games with the Pirates, negative comments from the media or on the Internet bothered him, so he wanted to leave Pittsburgh.
“I just want to say sorry to all the bloggers and media people for saying they don’t know anything. But I didn’t mean anything by it,” Snell said. “I was just upset at the time.”
He says family, friends and God helped him get back on track.
“Seek God and positive people around you and look for your true friends and they’ll come out and support you,” Snell said. “A lot of people support me right now. I’m just grateful, because if I didn’t have them, I probably wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
Read the full MSNBC article here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31674893/ns
Topics: Baseball, Pittsburgh Pirates | 4 Comments »
July 1st, 2009 at 11:47 am
3 pirate posts in a row. wow. Setting records over here.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Snell also needs to stop listening to everyone that says he has all this talent. Oh he might have talent but he’s crushing himself trying to live up to it. If he gets to the Majors again, he needs to come in with the attitude “I’m not that good, but I will try my best.” And he needs to tell every reporter that so that they stop slobbering over him. I listened to Paul Alexander the other night. He could stop telling Snell how much talent he had. That kid doesn’t need to hear that. Because when he goes out to pitch and when it doesn’t come together, his ego gets crushed and he feels like taking his life afterward or going off on someone. Better to have the attitude , it can’t get any worse.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:35 am
Lets call it the Vince Young syndrome.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Alex
That is exactly what it is.