Touring Ball Legend Blooms After Facing Mental Issues
by Damien Lia Toku for National Comment
July 25, 1930
ORESTRIC PARK, REDWOOD, THRONSON — Jorge Akil sat silently in the dugout on September 18, 1929. The rest of his team had cleared out and hit the showers for the final time that season. Akil did not play that day. In fact, he was not on the Owls’ roster for a single game in 1929. He sat alone, stoic, staring out onto the field, wearing slacks and an Owls sweater, his arm in a sling. He stayed there, staring, until the last of the fans filtered out of the park and the grounds crew tended to the field and went home for the night. Just a few days from his 35th birthday, Jorge was not in the mood to celebrate. His journey to organized baseball had been full of roadblocks, and the latest rumors were that Redwood might be moving on from him in the offseason.
After 13 years as a centerpiece of Milner’s Baseball Kings, Akil wanted to sign with the UA in its first year in 1928. However, he was forced to wait another season, as Burt Milner refused to let one of his best players and biggest draws out of his contract with the touring team. Fortunately for Akil, he only had one year left on his deal with Milner’s Kings, and joined the Owls for the 1929 season. The team, the league, and baseball fans at large were thrilled to have one of touring ball’s biggest stars in the UA, and Akil was excited to show the world what he could do with the league’s widespread media reach. Unfortunately, he dove for a ball in right field during a Spring Training game and landed hard, breaking a bone in his elbow. In that moment, his season ended before it began, and his future in baseball fell into question.
Jorge did not have much to say to the media once his injury was announced, but friends say they noticed a change in him. He appeared at many Owls home games in 1929, both in the dugout and in the executive suite at Orestric Park, and it was evident even to an outsider that his demeanor had changed. Akil was always a reserved person, but there was a darkness, like a storm cloud, that followed him in 1929. He became, in his own words, “listless.”
“I couldn’t play, I couldn’t work out. All I could do was wait and watch. It was great of the team to let me hang around during the year, but maybe that wasn’t the best thing for my head. I don’t know,” Jorge told me in a phone call from his home in Redwood. “I was obsessed. More than ever before, but there was no outlet for it all. I got listless. It scared my wife a little bit.”
In the winter of 1929, Akil checked himself into a mental health facility. “I still had like a month before I could throw or hit again, and I hadn’t talked to [my wife] Kyra for a couple weeks. I would just sit in my workout room and be mad at myself. I knew I had to do something.” Jorge spent a week at Shephard Heights Hospital, where professionals got him to open up about his frustrations and his fears. “They pretty much made me talk about it. I mean, I could have left, but I didn’t. It was hard, because ignoring pain and putting it all into baseball is what got me to being a pro ballplayer. I was losing my grip, though. I knew if I was going to come back, I needed to do something different, you know, focus on my thought processes.”
Akil’s time focusing on his thought processes seems to be paying off. The Owls kept him around for 1930 and his debut UA season, though delayed, has been everything we’ve hoped for. He was June’s UA Batter of the Month. At the All-Star break, he led the league in home runs. In the All-Star Game, he hit a pair of dingers and was named MVP. Under his veteran leadership, the Owls are having their best season to date, with their eyes on a possible playoff spot.
Jorge says he’s happy with the way things are going. “Yeah, I’m feeling good. Can’t let up though.” I asked him if what happened at the hospital helped his game. “Yeah, I think it did. I always thought my intensity would die if I mellowed out.” He laughed. “But, no, I think it’s the opposite. When I’m aware of what I’m feeling and able to talk about those things, it really frees up the baseball part of my head. I’ve never felt better, even if my legs have. I’m not getting any younger, and I didn’t even know if I’d still be playing after last year, so I’m feeling good about this season. Just gotta keep going.”
Since returning to the field this summer, Jorge has donated thousands to help start a mental health campaign within the Owls organization. “I think it’s important for people in all walks of life to talk about these kinds of things. It doesn’t have to be such a scary thing. We don’t have to judge each other or ourselves for wanting to feel better and be better.”
From a legend of baseball’s touring era, to a national star, to an advocate for mental health, Jorge Akil continues to shine. We will be watching with admiration this year and beyond as he achieves and sets an example, on and off the field.
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