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The news on Brandon Belt and Hector Sanchez isn't as bad as it can get. But it's not on a road to anywhere good.
Andrew Baggarly reports that Brandon Belt will not resume physical activities for two to three weeks, at least.
Belt saw concussion specialist Dr. Micky Collins at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on Tuesday in the hopes of gaining more clarity on his recurring concussion symptoms stemming from when he got hit in the face by a thrown ball July 19 at Miami.
Alex Pavlovic reports that Hector Sanchez is concussed again after taking another foul-tip off his mask in a Fresno rehab game.
"There has to be (that concern) with this being his second one, but we'll know in the next few days after we see how he responds and the progress he makes," manager Bruce Bochy said. "You have to think of the player's well-being and what's right. This is going to take some time with Hector."
I can't imagine being a professional ballplayer, whose life is usually a steady grind of constant activity, and being ordered to do nothing but sit and deal with the headaches/fog/horror of a concussion until it stops. It's hard for me to even write about it; living with it is something of a newfound phobia of mine. I had a minor concussion a couple weeks ago, and the minor symptoms (headache, fogginess) went away after a day. It was one of the worst days I can remember. That was minor. And I'm used to sitting on my butt all day, thinking unclear thoughts.
I can't even imagine.
The Giants don't sound optimistic about either player in a baseball context, but that's not important right now. It's more important to hope that both of these players get to live normal lives. If it takes until 2015 for them to play baseball again, here's hoping that they can do so without any lingering effects whatsoever.
Travis Ishikawa and Andrew Susac will continue to take the roster spots of Belt and Sanchez, respectively, which isn't a sentence I figured would appear on a website this year.