A death on the diamond
It seems like we’ve had a number of horrible freak accidents on amateur baseball diamonds recently. The latest happened yesterday at Liberty University. I’ll again note my surprise that we haven’t seen something like this happen in Major League Baseball.
Just awful.
UPDATE: As noted in the comments, it’s even worse than first reported:
Taylor was pitching to his son, Jeffrey — a member of the Lynchburg (Va.) College baseball team — when a line drive struck him near his throat at the school’s baseball diamond. The elder Taylor, 44, died from the injury.
I’m going to go lay down for a while and try to forget how terrible this world can be when it wants to be.
When are we going to ban aluminum bats?
still just a rumor but i heard that the story is actually unimaginably worse. as in the unidentified player who was batting is actually identified in the little blurb. its pretty much the worst thing ever.
What do aluminum bats have to do with getting hit with a baseball. A wooden bat didn’t help the pro assistant coach that died a couple years ago after getting hit in the head.
What a horrible thing to have happened. That batter’s going to be haunted by this for the rest of his life.
yeah, not a rumor
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090430/SPORTS/904300345/1059
so it is offically the worst thing ever.
I blame the pagans, feminists, abortionists and gays for this tragedy.
Inappropriate, much?
I concur with ken and craig.
Craig, it hasn’t happened at the MLB level yet just by chance. While seemingly rampant, diamond deaths are still pretty rare. Now think about how many teams there are at the level where they are likely to have a hitter with the power to kill someone with a combacker. This would include high school on up, so THOUSANDS of teams. There are 30 MLB teams. The odds are that it will happen eventually, but let’s be thankful that it doesn’t happen more often at any level, or in the majors at all. A team mate of my son’s was the recipient of a fractured skull on a comebacke in a 14U game in North Texas last year. Could have easily been fatal (several days in ICU, swelling of the brain, etc…). He just got lucky (and no longer wants to pitch).
As for close calls, remember Jon Matlack?
NO PITCHING SCREEN? It’s gonna happen!
I read this, then scrolled down and read last night’s game recaps – including the one about Uehara. In that context, the Uehara jokes seem kind of inappropriate. Just saying, might be worth editing
Elliot: I had forgotten about that joke (I wrote it last night) until you mentioned it. I put up a brief note about it in the recaps.
Thanks.
http://www.post-trib.com/sports/highschools/1543732,bport.article
Stuff like this happens at every level and we can’t just blame bats… The link is a story about a kid with 14 facial fractures due to a collision in the outfield. Luckily he’s going to be ok and may even return in late May.