Jarren Duran, the young, blazing outfielder of the Boston Red Sox, isn’t afraid to open up about the struggles he endured on his way to stardom. Before capturing MLB’s All-Star game MVP in 2024, Duran found himself at the mercy of a demanding Boston sports fan base after a rocky transition to the big leagues in 2022. The anger of fans at the shortcomings of this supposed top prospect, as well as Duran’s noted self-inflicted pressure, drove him to the depths of depression in his rookie season. So much so that if it weren’t for his personal rifle misfiring from beneath his chin in the dark, he wouldn’t even be where he is today.
Despite his perseverance from then to the top of the sport, his courage in opening up about his strife publicly, recently spotlighted in Episode 4 of Netflix’s eight-part feature series “The Clubhouse,” was disgustingly turned against him on Sunday by an opposing fan of ignorant and shallow nature. “Go f***ing kill yourself,” the man reportedly screamed at Duran from the stands. “You should’ve killed yourself when you had the chance!” Duran began to respond to the heckler, who shrank away and thankfully unsuccessfully attempted to flee the stadium unrecognized. While we await the repercussions from the Cleveland Guardians and/or Major League Baseball, this moment reminds us once again of the most overlooked yet deadly profound epidemic in our world today: the crisis of men’s mental health. Despite common stereotypes, the National Institutes of Health state that men and women are generally equal in emotional intelligence, but women are more likely to express their emotions. Per the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, 1 in 10 men around the world experience some form of emotional distress, such as depression, stress, or anxiety. Still, less than half of those will ever seek help for it because they don’t feel they can seek out help or feel they can comfortably talk about it. As a result, men in the United States are four times more likely to die by suicide than women. There is a genuine stigma around men’s mental health, and men die because of it every day. Thoughts of self-harm are as serious as cancer, and it’s time we treated them as such.
As with most things these days, the stigma, among others, is most publicized on fields, courts, arenas, and stadiums worldwide. Sports are a justifiable lens into our society as a whole, and what happened at Progressive Field in Cleveland over the weekend is a textbook example. “Fan is short for fanatic,” is easy to classify as a cliche and attempt a justification for the fan’s outlandishness, but its truths are self-evident. They are human as much as Duran is. Put yourself in his cleats, alone in the outfield after losing a fly ball in the lights, plopping 50 feet over his head. Vitriol and vulgarity rain down on him, as the failed expectations of others stab into the already internal bleeding.
Sound familiar?
Male athletes such as Duran, whose lives revolve around pleasing fans as much as their employers or families, are undoubtedly more susceptible to mental battles. When they fail, they let others down as much as they let themselves down, often in front of a national audience, thereby intensifying both external and internal pressures. Using baseball as a microcosm for this phenomenon stems from its inherently perfectionist nature. The best hitters in the history of the game will fail seven out of 10 times at the plate. For people who expect perfection on the diamond, they will get humbled fast. At the highest levels held to the largest expectations, too many onlookers forgo the odds of failure, and your own mind soon follows suit in their disappointment.
“I was watching the Red Sox documentary on Netflix with Duran, and it almost brought a tear to my eye,” Devan Bade, senior third baseman at Binghamton University, said. “I had been so down at times, and it’s crazy to think how once you get off it, how you let yourself get that down. But it’s just the constant pressure that we (athletes) have not only from ourselves but from everyone else. An athlete is definitely more susceptible to mental health struggles. You’re constantly being faced with pressure and adversity to perform for yourself, your teammates, coaches, and fans. ”
Bade, the top 2025 MLB draft prospect in the America East Conference, has been able to deal with such pressure and pick himself off the mat as Duran has. So many others aren’t so lucky.
You may not, and God forbid you don’t, get to the point of turning a rifle to your head, but hundreds upon thousands of others do every single day. And nobody knows about it until it’s too late. As a man, being able to open up emotionally is not easy. Society expects the man to be tough and bulletproof, to saddle up when times get tough. I myself suffered through years of depression, piled on by others’ expectations and my thoughts. I resisted seeking professional help for much of it, feeling that such an overture would be damaging to my personal pride as a man. If men were to live a truly healthy life, that’s not realistic.
“As much as they cheer, there will always be “fans” who would rather jeer. Duran’s heard it and even faced suspension for retaliating against it a year ago. But being so low as to bring up a man’s suicidal past, which took him years to be comfortable with sharing, in a public setting is beyond shameful.
Athletes, in particular, are reluctant to open up about their private lives, fearing that any disclosure could fuel the fire from reaction-seeking fans. The Coward of Cleveland lighting that match and throwing it on a highly flammable subject is yet another testament to what the world thinks about men’s mental health. And that needs to change.
