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April 22nd, 2022

Baseball to Brain Injury and Back: A Story of Survival

  1. Baseball to Brain Injury and Back: A Story of Survival Tom Kranz 22:10

Ruppert Jones was a star player for the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees and four other teams during his 11-years in Major League Baseball. But his love for shagging fly balls almost cost him his career and his life in 1980 when he crashed into the unpadded center field wall at the Oakland Coliseum. His injured shoulder was the big concern at first, and it took a long time to recover from that. But when he finally got back onto the ballfield, he knew something else wasn't right. He was having trouble sleeping. He couldn't concentrate. He had flashes of anger. He wasn't as sharp as before. He turned to alcohol and cocaine to self-medicate his Depression. He lost his family, his Money and almost his career. It took another decade to realize he was suffering from a traumatic brain injury, and even more years with psychiatrists to get a definitive diagnosis of mental illness as a result of the injury. Today, he is an advocate for Mental Health and TBI awareness and tells his incredible story of survival in his book Never Give Up: A Memoir of Baseball and Traumatic Brain Injury. We talk about his book, which he wrote by hand, and his long and slow process of recovery with the help of good friends, his wife and his faith. 

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Tom Kranz Author & Podcaster

Tom is a Philadelphia native whose 40-year journalism expertise includes radio, television, print and online. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Temple University. He was a New Jersey certified EMT from 1999 to 2021 and served as a volunteer EMT on his local rescue squad in New Jersey answering more than 3,000 calls. He is still a certified CPR instructor and a life member of the squad.

He worked in Philadelphia radio and television from the mid 1970s until 1991. From 1992 to 2007 he was a producer and senior producer at CBS News. After retiring from the TV news business in 2007, he spent 12 years as director of communications for Chelsea Senior Living and two years as public information officer for the borough of Fanwood, New Jersey.

Tom has written seven books. He resides in New Jersey where he hosts a podcast on creativity and does freelance communications work.

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