This story contains mentions of suicide. Please continue with caution.
Jarren Duran ascended to become a face of the Red Sox organization during the 2024 season. Mainly for his controversy surrounding a heckling event, later dubbed “The Tennis Racket Incident,” Duran was suspended for 2 games for using a homophobic slur toward the heckler. But with a chunk of the 2025 season now played, Duran finds himself in a similar situation with a heckler. This time targeting him for his struggles with mental health. Adding a new log to the fire of whether Men’s Mental Health matters or not.
This story begins way back in an episode of Netflix’s Docuseries, ‘The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox,’ in which he revealed his struggles with mental health and an attempted Suicide Attempt due to struggles to keep up with production demands during the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
This story is very far from the first time a baseball player has struggled with mental health. Former Red Sox and Rockies pitcher Daniel Bard openly talked about his Anxiety problems which was a factor in his choice to take a career hiatus in 2013 and then later miss the start of the 2023 season with Colorado, and notably Andrew Toles, a former Dodgers who has not played a game since 2018, has his contract routinely renewed by the team so that he can continue to have access to the team’s mental health resources. The issue goes beyond baseball, though.
As long as the patriarchy has gripped humanity, men have been afraid to mention mental health at the risk of being labeled weak by those around them. But there is only so long one can hold it in for. Eventually, negativity will lead men to do irresponsible things, as we see in the stereotypical ways of anger, sadness, a hatred for life, and, as previously mentioned, suicide. It only reveals how bad of an issue Men’s mental health is.
“Historically, there is stigma about men reaching out for mental health support. I do think it has slowly been getting better, but there is still a lot of room to grow.” Said Eaglecrest School Psychologist Ms. Edie.
The NIMH estimates that 19.7% of males in the United States suffer from some sort of mental health issue, but that number is likely to be higher due to the common association between mental health help and weakness. Because of such, men have been proven to reach out less.
“I think masculinity is related. Mental health and therapy are sometimes viewed as a weakness, and definitely impact a person’s motivation to seek mental health support,” claims School Psychologist Ms. Alison Burton.
Additionally, a 2023 CDC statistic shows a shocking trend that 80% of suicide victims were of the male demographic, which paints a glaringly obvious picture in the eyes of experts.
“There is a fairly strong correlation between what makes it difficult for men to ask for help and suicide attempts. Mental health issues tend to get worse if we don’t seek treatment, and they can escalate, which leads to thoughts of suicide,” School Psychologist Ms. Edwards remarked.
Flashforward now to the 27th of April, and we are again reminded of this issue plaguing men during the 7th inning of April 27th’s Red Sox game against the Cleveland Guardians. A fan yelled, “something inappropriate” at the outfielder in an attempt to get a rise out of him. Duran stayed relatively calm during the event and pointed the fan out to security, who caught the heckler while he attempted to run up the aisle and escape. After the game, Duran told reporters,
“When you open yourself up like that, you also open yourself up to the enemies. But I have a good support staff around me, teammates, coaches. There were fans that were supporting me, so that was awesome,”
Ms. Burton agreed with his sentiments, saying, “It is a perfect example of how men being vulnerable isn’t acceptable to some.”
Duran’s new heckling case reflects his growth as a player and person. And shows his resilience. As manager Alex Cora stated, “We made a mistake last year and we learned from it. We grew up, you know, as an individual and as a group.”
The fifth-year outfielder looks to build on his impressive 2024 All-Star level season, where he slashed for 21 home runs and led the league in doubles and triples. You’ll also commonly hear players echo legendary catcher Yogi Berra’s quote, “90% of the game is mental and the other half is physical.” For Duran, his story of perseverance and growth shows these exact sentiments.
