When Travis Snider was 11 years old, playing in the Little League Western Regional Tournament, he suddenly started hyperventilating. Snider had pitched a perfect first inning and hit a home run. Then, in the second inning, he couldn’t throw a strike. His heart rate shot up, and he started crying. He had to be taken out of the game. At the time, the incident was chalked up to sports-induced asthma. Advertisement Only much later would he be able to admit that it had been a panic attack.
Patty got into a fatal car accident days later. Snider was 19. “The narrative that I crafted for scouts was that all this prepared me to go out and play pro baseball on my own at 18,” Snider said. “I thought I was mentally tough. But I was just suppressing a lot of this stuff. It would come back later , and I just wasn’t equipped to handle it.” Snider was a much-hyped prospect with the Blue Jays, but struggled to reach his potential in the majors.