Bench coach Banister grateful for D-backs' attention during health scare

SAN FRANCISCO -- When he got to Oracle Park on Monday afternoon, it was clear to everyone who saw him that something wasn’t right with Jeff Banister. Even the Diamondbacks bench coach knew something was off.

"When I woke up yesterday morning, I obviously felt worn out,” Banister said Tuesday before Tuesday's 10-6 loss to the Giants. “I talked to [my wife] Karen on the phone. I told her I was going to go lay back down and take a nap. Next thing I knew I found myself here at the clubhouse, and didn't know how I got here. So that's where things got a little bit challenging."

The team’s medical staff looked him over and felt it would be best if he went to a nearby hospital to get checked out.

To Banister, the idea of leaving the ballpark and not working was unthinkable. To manager Torey Lovullo and the training staff, though, there was no way he wasn’t going to go.

"I'm grateful for this group in this clubhouse that actually recognized that there were some things that were a little bit sideways with me,” Banister said. “And they were forceful enough to kind of get me moving in the right direction when I probably didn't want to go."

As Banister said, he needed to not try to be the toughest guy in the room at that point.

So, the 61-year-old went with a member of the team’s training staff to the hospital via ambulance.

While Banister was undergoing a battery of tests at the hospital, the Diamondbacks' game against the Giants began. But he was not far from the minds of the players, who throughout the game kept asking Lovullo if he had heard any updates.

"It's what we mean to one another,” Lovullo said. “It's a real thing. It's authentic. And when you see it play out the way it did [Monday], you know that you're doing it right.”

By the end of the game, it was clear that Banister was not in any danger and was back at the team hotel resting. Lovullo, who saw Banister off in the ambulance, went right to see him as soon as he returned to the hotel after the game.

According to Banister, the doctors said that he had suffered an episode of what is called transient global amnesia, which according to the Mayo Clinic is “an episode of confusion that comes on suddenly in a person who is otherwise alert.”

The cause of TGA is unknown, but by the end of the evening, Banister was feeling like his old self and he was back at the ballpark Tuesday, where he shared a message with his fellow coaches: In the hectic world of baseball they need to make sure they take good care of themselves physically.

“I probably need to eat better, probably need to drink a lot more water and make sure that that I sleep and when I feel tired, take a moment of time to lay down,” Banister said. “I've been a guy that pushes hard for the last 40 years, and I'm still that guy, and I'll still be that guy, but paying attention to making sure that we take care of ourselves is paramount.”