Less than two weeks ago Chicago White Sox reliever Danny Farquhar suffered a brain aneurysm. A blood vessel burst in his head and flooded his brain with blood moments after finishing a game for the Sox. Two former teammates of his, Logan Morrison and Jake Odorizzi, visited him at RUSH University Medical Center after Thursday’s game against the White Sox and found him upbeat, all things considered.
“He seemed like he was in great spirits,” said Morrison, who played with him in Seattle and Tampa. “I was really, really blown away, impressed, surprised by how well he’s doing. Walking around, talking, doing great.”
“It was good to see him today,” echoed Odorizzi, who was in Tampa with him during the past two seasons. “I think we were the first people that were allowed to come see him, so that meant a lot to us, that we were able to go and actually hang out with him and enjoy some time with him, give him some fresh faces to look at that weren’t doctors or family members.”
According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, Cerebral aneurysms kill 40 percent of those who suffer them. More than half who survive live with disabilities.
“It’s kind of truly a miracle how everything played out,” said Odorizzi. “Everything out of that situation couldn’t have unfolded better from what we saw today. It was the normal Farquhar with just a scar on his head. You take the scar away, he’s the same guy he’s always been, so pretty miraculous turnaround considering it’s been two weeks.”
“Leading up to it, we didn’t expect much even going in there,” admitted Morrison. “We thought, ‘This probably won’t be long because they don’t want us around or whatever,’ but we didn’t know we were going to be able to see him until this morning.
“I mean he was able to text LoMo back and everything,” said Odorizzi, “but realistically, we didn’t know what we were gonna be walking into. If some motor skill will still be there, or speech, that sort of thing.”
“Until up until a couple of days ago he was down in the dumps and something switched,” added Morrison, “and he’s looking forward to getting out of there and enjoying his family.”
Morrison thought that Farquhar’s wife, Alexandria, and three kids were encouraged by his recovery. It was clear from their visit that he misses baseball, however. He watched both of them play on Thursday, and expressed disbelief that the Sox are keeping him on the disabled list for the next two months.
“He’s already talking about, ‘I can believe that put my on the 60-day DL” and that kind of stuff,” said Morrison with a laugh. “I told him to take the summer and relax and have good time in Chicago, but that ain’t him. He wants to get out there.”
“You never know how a brain injury can affect a person,” said Odorizzi. “He was sitting on the couch, and when I walked in there, he got up, gave me a hug and just a normal hangout, really.
“He talked baseball for quite a while, and he enjoyed doing that.”
“He loves to play the game, he loves to pitch,” added Morrison. “If he’s able to, he’ll be the guy who does it for sure. If he’s able to get off the mound and throw again, it would be awesome for him to break my bat for sure and get me out.”
The visit lasted a couple of hours. It came after the Twins were walked off for the fifth time this year, dropping them to 10-17 on the season.
“It just gives you perspective on life,” said Odorizzi. “You’ve got a lot of former teammates, and for somebody like that to hit close to home. It puts things in perspective of valuing each day and not taking anything for granted.
“If he can be upbeat, how he was today, there’s no reason why us individually, us as a team, can’t be upbeat after losing a few baseball games.”
