Pete Rose Taking out Ray Fosse at Home during the 1970 All Star Game
For the sake of the shear sportiness and terror of it all there is nothing quite as thrilling as getting beaned by a pitcher, creamed by a comebacker or run over by an aggressive runner coming into Second or Home. Likewise catching a bat in the face or head qualifies as somewhat sporty. This was really brought into focus this weekend when three players, the Met’s All-Star Third Baseman and former Norfolk Tides infielder David Wright, Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda and Texas Rangers Infielder Ian Kinsler took shots in the head on Saturday. Wright was taken down by a 94 MPH fastball from Giants pitcher Matt Cain. I am a Giants fan and the pitch certainly was not intentional but the sight was chilling as the ball hit Wrights helmet and put him on the ground. A video on Wright’s MLB page is linked here: http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=431151
The pitch from Cain was not intentional, just a high and tight fastball that got away from him. However the hit on Wright was brutal, Wright was down for about a minute, was taken to hospital where her was diagnosed with a concussion and could be out for the season. The blast that Kuroda took off of the bat of Arizona Diamondback Rusty Ryal had the potential to kill him. Kuroda also suffered a concussion but never lost consciousness. A video of the play, which was ruled a Ground Rule double as the ball went off of Kuroda’s head into the dugout is here: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090815&content_id=6445324&vkey=news_la&fext=.jsp&c_id=la
Kinsler took a pitch to the helmet from Fernando Cabrera following a hit on his shoulder. Kinsler remained in the game.
Taking a shot or getting plunked is no fun. Playing in a sandlot game in 3rd grade I took a line drive comebacker to the face. The ball slammed by left check just below my eye and put me down on the ground. I have taken a number of pitches to my body, never any to the head. When I played I saw getting hit by a pitch as a way to raise my On Base Percentage before I even knew what that was. Nonetheless getting balls thrown at you either intentionally or unintentionally does make you a bit nervous. If you have read my blog I admit that I was never much of a hitter. However I have never admitted until now that I didn’t try very hard to get out of the way of inside pitches. I may not been much of a hitter but I was pretty good at going on base either due to walking, getting hit or running out a play at first when a infielder bobbled a ball and couldn’t make a play. Getting hit was the easiest albeit the most painful way to get on base. I wish I had kept stats and charted my at bats when I was a kid playing organized Little League ball. I was probably hit by pitches more than anyone on the team. The other scary or sporty things that I found were taking a bat to the head, which happened to me twice and getting run over by someone bigger than you at Second or Home plate which happened to me in baseball and softball.
The thing that is the terrible thing about what happens when one takes a big hit is that the player is often not the same following the incident. Of particular note what happened to Ray Fosse of the Indians when ran over by Pete Rose in the 1970 All-Star game. Rose plowed over Fosse and has been accused by some of ruining Fosse’s career. The impact is one of the most memorable in All Star Game history, I remember watching the game as my dad cheered Rose, one of his favorite players of all time around third and into Fosse on that final play of that memorable All Star Game. I can feel for Fosse as when I was playing softball in college I was run over by an opposing player at home plate. The impact hurled me back about 6 feet as I was jumping to catch the throw from the outfield which was over my head. I ended up falling on my right hand jamming the arm and breaking a small bone in the wrist ending my season, which patently was the best season I had hitting in either baseball or softball hitting over .300 with 2 triples and 6 doubles. A friend of ours took a picture of the impact which was amazing, as it captured the moment when the opposing player put his shoulder into me with me in the air and ball almost in my glove. Unfortunately I lost my copy of it years ago and the friend has since passed away. I have also been bowled over at Second as opposing players attempted to break up double plays. On that I have given as well as have taken, I have never gone in easy to second if I thought the play might be close.
Another situation was when Tony Conigliaro of the Red Sox was hit on the cheek by a pitch from Angles pitcher Jack Hamilton at Fenway Park on August 18th 1967. He suffered a linear fracture of the left cheekbone and a dislocated jaw with severe damage to his left retina. He made a comeback the following year but was not the same. He played with the California Angels in 1971 in 74 games and 21 games with the Red Sox in 1975.
If player is beaned by one team, or there are several pitches that either hit batters or come close the opposing team might retaliate by going after the other teams better hitters. There is now a pretty good debate going on about this and if things are getting out of control. After having a lot of his players hit by pitches White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen warned opponents that if they hit more of his players that he would have his pitchers retaliate saying “If I see somebody hitting my players and I know it’s on purpose, two guys are going down. I don’t care if I get suspended, I don’t care.” Some were taken aback, but I can understand a manager protecting his players and even rallying them with such words.
Occasionally a catcher will get caught by a bat when a hitter swings. I got caught by one of these in baseball and one in softball. Thankfully both were glancing blows as at that time catchers only had face masks and not protective headgear. I was crowding the batter in both instances and was caught on the wrap around after the batter swung and missed at a pitch. A clean hit might have actually knocked some sense into me. Thankfully the Deity Herself was looking out for me and probably used all of these events to further warp my brain. One day, schedule, Judy and the Deity permitting I will get back into an old guys baseball or softball league. God help us all.
Peace,
Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 