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.


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Gordon
14 years ago

When are we going to ban aluminum bats?

kendynamo
14 years ago

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.

Randy
14 years ago

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.

Michael
14 years ago

What a horrible thing to have happened.  That batter’s going to be haunted by this for the rest of his life.

kendynamo
14 years ago

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.

Jerry Falwell
14 years ago

I blame the pagans, feminists, abortionists and gays for this tragedy.

tadthebad
14 years ago

Inappropriate, much?

I concur with ken and craig.

Richard in Dallas
14 years ago

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?

Lou D.
14 years ago

NO PITCHING SCREEN? It’s gonna happen!

Elliot
14 years ago

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

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

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.

Mike Stoner
14 years ago

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.