Life Threatening Injuries: Baseball’s hazardous side- MLB Feature Part 1
Sports are supposed to be fun and entertainment. Both players and spectators enjoy the athletic excellence on display in both team and individual sports. With entertainment, sports can sometimes be a cause of serious injury to players and even to fans. A
minor incident can turn into a disaster before anyone can realise it.
Baseball is no stranger to injuries and there have been some that have altered the course of careers. Ranging from tripping to colliding to being hit by a scorching line drive, there is a large variety of injuries that have taken place in the Majors and
have resulted in long term ill effects. We shall discuss some of these injuries and how they took place.
There have been many injuries in the outfield when players lose track of their location or simply get to passionate about making a play and take undue risk.
One such event took place in May of 1972 when Bobby Valentine trying to catch a home-run had his spikes struck in the chain links. The result was in shape of multiple fractures and an early end to the season. It also slowed him down permanently as a player
once he returned to the game.
Similarly, Aaron Rowand, in 2006 while playing with the Phillies trying to catch a ball rammed into centre field and ended up with multiple lacerations and a broken nose.
In May of 2009, Rick Ankiel who had converted to an outfielder from being a pitcher had run into the wall after losing track of his location. The kind of hit he took appeared to be extremely serious but he managed to get back on the field in a bit over two
weeks later.
Line drives are an aspect of the game that put the pitchers at a serious risk. The Major League Baseball currently is trying to come up with protective head gear for pitcher for them to be safe from these vicious blows that can be in excess
of 100 miles per hour.
In 1981, pitcher Bo McLaughlin got hit by a line drive right in his face in latter part of May 1981. The drive caused some serious damage and broke his nose, cheekbone, jaw and eye socket. He did play in the Majors the next year but was afterwards mainly
a Minor League pitcher.
In September of 2000, Bryce Florie took a telling blow at his face from a line drive by New York Yankees Ryan Thompson at the Fenway Park. He had numerous broken bones in the face and also suffered serious damage to his eye socket. Making a return to the
Red Sox the next year, he was not the same and was released after a few games. He pitched in the Minors for some seasons and then took up coaching as a career.
A recent incident involving a line drive took place in September of 2012 when Oakland Athletics Brandon McCarthy was hit by a line drive from Los Angeles Angels Erick Aybar and had a two hour long surgery. He suffered from a fractured skull, brain contusion
and epidural hemorrhage.
The 29-year-old is expected to recover completely from the injury but the psychological effects of the trauma are yet to be seen and with him being a free agent, it will have to be seen what kind of interest he will be able to draw from the teams after this
injury.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
To Be Continued in Part 2..
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