Sobriety Gives Relief to the Reliever: Lucas Erceg Celebrates Another Year of Sobriety

I was reading that Lucas Erceg recently celebrated another sober anniversary. Congratulations to him.

And congratulations to his family, the Kansas City Royals, his teammates, and his fans.

When a person gets better, the systems around them tend to get better too.

There’s no way to know how many people—especially young athletes—have been helped simply by seeing a successful professional athlete say, “I struggled, and I got help.”

Here’s what stands out to me:

If Erceg doesn’t address this issue, he probably loses his career.

No coach would tell an athlete to ignore a torn ACL. No parent would tell a player to play through a concussion. No trainer would look at a serious physical injury and say, “Let’s just see if it gets worse.”

Yet that’s often how we treat mental health and substance use issues.

We wait.

We hope.

We tell ourselves it’s not that bad.

If you’re a young athlete—or the parent of a young athlete—their mental and emotional health matters. Not just after a crisis. Not just after a suspension. Not just after a breakup, arrest, failed class, or ugly incident.

Now.

If you’re concerned, don’t wait for the struggle. Don’t believe the myth of rock bottom. Respect the red flags.

And if you’re doing well, ask for help anyway. Maintaining improvement is every bit as important as achieving improvement.

Mental health isn’t separate from performance. It’s part of performance.

Good for Lucas Erceg for reminding people of that.

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