Life Threatening Injuries: Baseball’s hazardous side- MLB Feature Part 2
Hit by Pitch is one of the more hazardous events in baseball when a player is unable to avoid a pitch that is pitched outside the strike zone and the batter does not attempt to hit it. On some occasions, it can simply be a cause of the walk.
On others, benches can clear and a fight can pursue or it can be a cause of serious injury to the batter.
Tony Conigliaro was hit by a Jack Hamilton pitch in 1967 on the face and a shadow of doubt was cast on his future. The hit left him with eye damage, dislocated jaw and a fractured cheekbone. It took Tony more than a year to make a comeback but it was a strong
one and he bagged the Comeback Player of the Year Award upon his return.
Minnesota Twins batter Kirby Puckett got hit in the eye in 1995 by a Denis Martinez fast ball in the face. Along with a broken jaw, he had temporary eye damage. However, during spring training the following year, he one day woke up to realise that he had
lost eye sight in that eye and his career, in which he entirely played for the Twins, came to an end.
A similar blow was received by J.T. Snow when he was hit by a Randy Johnson better known as the big unit’s fast ball smack in the face. He had a fractured eye socket as a result and had blurred vision on some parts of the season after returning to the field
of play.
Dickie Thon had a reasonably successful career in the Major League. But it did have a big road bump along the way when he was hit by a bean ball in 1984. Mike Torrez fast ball damaged his eye socket and shattered his orbital bone.
He was out for the remainder of the season and had initially a lot of eye sight issues. From a 20/20 vision, he went on to have a 20/150 vision. He recovered eventually to a 20/40 vision but had issues with his depth perception on permanent basis.
Getting hit by a broken bat may not be all that common but it can be extremely dangerous. The bats often get shattered in the ball game and sometimes players and even officials come in the harms way.
In 2010, Tyler Colvin came to know all about the dangers associated with a shattered bat. Making a rush to the home plate, he was hit by a broken bat that punctured one of his lungs after Tyler was caught in its flight path.
The Chicago Cubs hitter made it to home plate and was rushed to the hospital afterwards for treatment. The injury forced him out for the remainder of the 2010 season.
A similar incident took place in 1976 with Bill Russell swung hard at the ball and his bat shattered during the hit. Steve Yeager was on deck waiting for his plate appearance. Some of the shards from the bat hit Steve and he was rushed to the hospital.
The doctors removed the pieces of wood that had pierced his esophagus. The surgery took over an hour and a half and nine pieces of wood in all were removed.
This lead the Los Angeles Dodgers trainer Bill Buhler to add a throat guard to is protective helmet as a precaution. The additional piece of equipment was soon adopted by other catchers in baseball as well and became a standard part of catcher’s protection.
To Be Continued in Part 3..
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: