Bill Plaschke, a longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, announced that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease four years ago after complaining of weakness in his right arm. The award-winning sportswriter has kept the diagnosis secret, but he explained that he has to take significant amounts of medication during Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games and also works out at a gym in Los Angeles. The disease has affected his ability to smile, his speech and mobility as well, but he has continued to persevere through the trials and tribulations.
Plaschke articulated that the irony through this situation is that he has spent his career writing about athletes who have overcome hardships. Furthermore, he admitted that it is not easy and now understands what the subjects within the feel-good stories understood regarding the truth behind his positive language. Amid his career writing for the newspaper, Plaschke has chronicled star athletes in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, some of whom include Kobe Bryant, Shohei Ohtani and LeBron James.
“Degenerative disease sucks beyond any inspirational adjective,” Plaschke said. “Incurable illness stinks beyond any hopeful headline. I’ve got Parkinson’s, and it hurts to even say it. I’m still mobile, still active, I don’t have the trademark tremors that distinguish the famously afflicted Michael J. Fox or the late Muhammad Ali but, damn it, I’ve got it.”
In addition to his work with the Los Angeles Times, Plaschke was also a panelist appearing on Around the Horn. The weekday sports debate program recently concluded a 23-year run on television, and he took part in its final episode alongside writers from across the United States. Yet he admitted that his bosses did not know about his condition and decided against revealing his diagnosis publicly.
In fact, he felt embarrassed and humiliated because of the disease causing implications of frailty and weakness, but he was inspired by his boxing classmates to divulge his situation. Exercise and movement help slow the progression of Parkinson’s, a disease that about 1 million people have in the United States, and he partakes in 75-minute sessions that he recognizes work to quiet the condition.
“I leave that gym sweaty and sore but uplifted with the reminder that I am blessed to still lead a wonderful active life filled with family and friends and work and travel and so, so much hope,” Plaschke wrote. “I have Parkinson’s. But, by God, it doesn’t have me.”
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