The five stages of grief, as expressed by pitchers reacting to home runs
The 5 stages of grief, as pitchers reacting to home runs
There's a lot of grief in this world, and for pitchers, the most grievous of things is to give up a home run. The Kubler-Ross model teaches us that when dealing with grief there are five stages we go through -- and as you'd expect, MLB pitchers go through all of them. Observe below with some help from Marlins reliever Mike Dunn, who surrendered a 13th-inning long ball to the Pirates' Gregory Polanco on Friday:
As for the full spectrum ...
1. Denial
"Why wouldn't I just keep staring at my catcher? Nothing happened just then, nothing at all."
2. Anger
"ONLY MY GLOVE PREVENTS MY UNYIELDING RAGE FROM ENVELOPING THIS UNSUSPECTING EARTH."
3. Bargaining
"Maybe it was a fly ball? Maybe just a very deep fly ball? Maybe?"
4. Depression
"Why even bother continuing to pitch?"
5. Acceptance
