Amazing story--Petrick was fighting Parkinson's--and hiding it--his entire MLB career.

That's amazing.

Who could have known that a player some considered a potential Hall of Fame catcher [...] would have his future stolen from him by an incurable disease that rarely afflicts people as young as 22?

Ok, he was a very promising prospect but... WHAT THE WHAT!?!?
Hall of Famer? Chill out a lil there ESPN. They really couldn't have just said "future All-Star"? They had to throw silly HoF hyperbole out there?

Ok, he was a very promising prospect but... WHAT THE WHAT!?!?
Hall of Famer? Chill out a lil there ESPN. They really couldn't have just said "future All-Star"? They had to throw silly HoF hyperbole out there?

Obviously you never saw Bill James projections for his rookie year back in the day. ;)

Seriously, he had him hitting like .300/30/100 his rookie season.

Looking at Petrick's B-Ref page was a great reminder of just how insane 2000 Coors Field was. He hit .322/.401/.466, a line that belongs right in the middle of Joe Mauer's peak. Petrick's OPS+? 100.

Ok, he was a very promising prospect but... WHAT THE WHAT!?!?
Hall of Famer? Chill out a lil there ESPN. They really couldn't have just said "future All-Star"? They had to throw silly HoF hyperbole out there?

Yeah, I went big on Petrick in my APBA keeper league, but figured him for possible legit future All Star + beneficiary of unadjusted Coors Field stats. It's a long way from there to "potential Hall of Famer," unless you want to roll the dice and say that about any 22 year old in MLB. Michael Barrett came up about the same time, and the biggest difference between him and Petrick as prospects was Coors Field.

His immediate problem was that the lifestyle of baseball does not lend itself to the recommended regimen of prescription drugs. To control the Parkinson's symptoms, he began taking Requip, a drug that tricks the brain by mimicking dopamine. But long hours at the ballpark, day and night games, time zone changes and buses and planes made any sort of routine impossible. Plus, the Requip made him sleepy. "So there I was, popping pills like sunflower seeds, trying to stay awake as we go over the scouting reports of the other team, trying to pretend nothing was wrong," Petrick says. He wasn't so much deceiving his teammates as he was deceiving himself.

I wonder if this would have shown up if they were doing the current steroid testing program then, a la Ryan Braun?

Ok, he was a very promising prospect but... WHAT THE WHAT!?!?
Hall of Famer? Chill out a lil there ESPN. They really couldn't have just said "future All-Star"? They had to throw silly HoF hyperbole out there?

I think that being hung up on All-Star versus HoF in this context is missing the entire point. This isn't a hardcore baseball story, it's a human story.

I wonder if this would have shown up if they were doing the current steroid testing program then, a la Ryan Braun?

Well I'm guessing the pills he was popping to stay awake would have eventually led to a 25-game suspension.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. :-)

A brief web search turns up that Petrick once had 4 RBI in a game with no hits -- a god of small ball!

I think that being hung up on All-Star versus HoF in this context is missing the entire point. This isn't a hardcore baseball story, it's a human story.

Well, duh. But it cheapens the story when the writer throws out silly statements like "Hall of Famer." The Petrick story, which I am familiar with, is a good story. It doesn't need to dumb lines like that in there.

To be fair, before he was a Parkinson's case, the guy did hit .238/.345/.470 as a 21 year old, good defensive catcher in the Eastern League. That's pretty damn impressive.

HOF: I considered a different excerpt / omitting that bit - but figured people would focus on the human interest aspect. Silly me...

Anyway, fwiw, I liked him quite a bit more than Barrett as a prospect (for reasons other than park factors) - more power, more speed, more defense (less ability to make contact, which I underrated at the time). Heck, they nearly had the same career OPS+ (very different number of PA, mind you) despite Petrick having Parkinson's.