More on Aubrey Huff

I was half joking when I said Aubrey Huff is my new favorite San Francisco Giant, but after reading this, man, I really mean it:

He tossed and turned, unable to sleep, his mind racing with thoughts of struggles on and off the field. At 5 a.m. he decided to get up.

"I open the window and see the New York skyline," he said. "The sun is starting to come up. I see all the huge buildings. I just freaked out. I don't know what happened. I couldn't figure out what it was. The room felt like it was getting smaller, a claustrophobic feeling. I couldn't control one thought in my head. There were so many thoughts going through."

His overriding thought, "If I'm going to die of a heart attack, I'm going to at least try to get home."

Huff packed, put on a suit and took a cab to the airport, where he bought a ticket for Tampa and lay along a wall at the gate, crouched on his bag, comforted by having other people around who could help him if he lost consciousness.

"I was shaking, sweating," he said. "I was telling myself, 'Just get on the plane. Just get on the plane.' "

Recognize any of this? The sense that your surroundings are closing in on you? The belief -- the certainty -- that you're having a heart attack? The overwhelming impulse to flee, to get somewhere safe? Isn't it great that a public figure, a pro athlete, no less, someone who's been taught to put "sucking it up" as among the most important traits a man can possess, is being so public about what's happening with his mental health? But here's what really wins me over:

"To be honest with you, I was always taught that people who had anxiety issues were just weak-minded people," he said. "Now that it's happened to me, you see you can't control it. To people this has happened to, there's nothing you can say or do on the outside to make somebody feel better because they haven't experienced it."

P.S. Yes, he's only been to bat twice since coming off the disabled list at the beginning of the week, but he's batting .500 since his return. Good on ya, Huff Daddy.