Mike Matheny is a former major-league baseball catcher who retired in 2006 after a series of foul tips on his catcher's mask resulted in a serious concussion (or series of concussions?). After a lengthy recovery, he returned to baseball in 2008 as a special advisor to the St. Louis Cardinals (his former team) and is now considered to be a future managerial candidate. Here's a link to, and quote from, the article:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/bl...ead-leads-you/

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When Matheny first landed on the DL with a concussion he had his own set of concerns to deal with. "The first nine months were really scary. It took almost 18 months until I felt like I could do things that I was doing right before I was hurt. That was a pretty scary time and very eye opening."

"My problems were always with the cognitive stuff, not being able to put things together or even being able to speak right at times. It was bizarre how my concussions went. The headaches and that sort of stuff were there, but they weren't any big deal to me. I could just tell my mind wasn't working right."

The impact of his concussions on his family was severe. "My kids are all very athletic, and always had some sport that they were playing. We enjoy the outdoors and our family would spend most of our time together outside playing. Our favorite family game is without a doubt, whiffle ball. While I was recovering from the concussions, I was not able to do much of anything. I was not able to get my heart rate up, so I couldn't play any kind of games with the kids."

He soon realized more was at stake than just his baseball career and he retired from baseball on Feb. 1, 2007.