Clusters

Given my line of work, patterns matter.  It can be a pattern of behavior, a pattern of payments, a pattern of virtually anything that's probative.  My interest in patterns probably comes from my days playing sports, where I would look for tendencies, whether they were what a pitcher would throw in a given situation or what a player would do when he had the ball on a basketball court.  Chess players try to make sure they aren't too patterned in their play, because they become predictable and therefore vulnerable.

Some years ago, I read a disturbing story about some prominent NFL quarterbacks whose children suffered from disabilities and diseases.  I took notice at first because these players had risen to the top of their profession, yet their children were afflicted with horrible illnesses.  Here's the list I found online:

Jim Kelly - son has Krabbes disease
Mark Rypien - son died at age 4 of a brain tumor
Boomer Esiason - son has cystic fibrosis
Trent Dilfer - son died of a heart condition
Doug Flutie - son has autism
Dan Marino - son has/had autism

Of these quarterbacks, five have played in Super Bowls, two have won them, one has won a Heisman trophy and two are in Canton.  That's a pretty remarkable group of players from one position, and an even more remarkable coincidence of medical tragedy afflicting only their sons. 

When I look at the list, I try to find explanations in commonalities beyond their position that might explain the occurrence of illness in their sons.  Kelly and Marino are from Pennsylvania, Flutie's from Maryland, Esiason is from New York, Rypien from Canada and Dilfer from California, so location isn't the connection.  All but Flutie are 6'4" or taller.  Most are roughly my age, with Dilfer and Flutie just a few years younger.  Their ethnic backgrounds, judging from their surnames are all different.  I don't know what makes them all similar beyond the football connection.  It's an eerie coincidence and one that sparks discussion among knowledgeable sports fans.

A possible connection that might be suggested is PED's, but if anyone looked at any of these guys, not one of them was bulked up.  It's doubtful that those are the cause.

It could but just rotten, random luck.  Those in the medical profession call this a cluster, which Wikipedia describes as a grouping of health-related events that are related temporally and in proximity.  Typically, when clusters are recognized, they are reported to public health departments in the local area. The 1854 cholera outbreak which occurred in London is a classical example of a cluster. If clusters are of sufficient size and importance, they may be re-evaluated as outbreaks.

I don't think this rises to the level of an outbreak, but's a curious anomaly, because the tendency would be to think that children of such prominent athletes to be very health at worst and extremely gifted athletically at best.  These children are neither.

I bring this up because recently, I've notice another cluster that's starting to take shape.  Again, it may be simple rotten coincidence, but anyone who learns of it -- even Karen, who likes to kid me about my always noticing coincidences -- would say it's an eerie one. 

Darren Daulton was a catcher for the 1983 and 1985-97 Philadelphia Phillies.  Recently, he had surgery to remove two brain tumors.  In and of itself, that's not unusual, were it not for the fact that another former Philly, Tug McGraw, a relief pitcher for the World Series-winning 1980 team and father of singer Tim McGraw, died of a brain tumor.  So did Gary Carter, a Hall of Fame catcher who played for the Montreal Expos and New York Mets. 

In analyzing the superficial commonalities of these three players, the only things they shared were baseball and playing in batteries, instead of playing in the field.  The careers of McGraw and Carter overlapped, as did Daulton's, mostly with Carter.  Carter and McGraw were from California originally, but Daulton is from Kansas.  The only other thing that might link their maladies is that for a large portion of their careers, each of them played on Astroturf, McGraw and Daulton in Veterans Stadium and Carter in Olympic Stadium in Montreal.  Both of those fields were notorious for cutting the careers of numerous players short due to the unforgiving surfaces' effects on their legs.  Veterans Stadium was long regarded as the worst playing surface not only in the Major Leagues but also in the NFL.

The quarterbacks mentioned above played on artificial turf as well, but not as much.  The NFL season for most of them was either fourteen or sixteen games long, not counting the preseason and any postseason games.  The major leaguers played eighty-one games at home and may have played more games on Astroturf in other stadia, such as the Astrodome.  

I'm no scientist or medical professional.  I don't have any answer for why these things happened to these people or their families.  I just think that the coincidence of illness lumped into these specific groups -- quarterbacks, pitchers and catchers -- is highly unusual.  I don't think PED's are the answer.  The answer may even be as simple as rotten dumb luck.  But it is curious.

Ironically, from what I read on Wikipedia about Daulton, he holds a series of beliefs related to conspiracies, occultism and numerology.

Perhaps, if he recovers sufficiently from his surgery, he can explain these nasty occurrences.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles