In the second inning of Monday night's game between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins, Yankees pitcher Bryan Mitchell was struck in the head by a line drive off the bat of Eduardo Nunez. In the end it was a particularly grisly-looking scene, with much blood shed, but Mitchell emerged relatively unscathed; a partial nasal fracture and a possible concussion, which means he won't be playing any time soon, but he never lost consciousness and left the field under his own power. That isn't always the case.
While any position on the field is susceptible to injury, pitchers have a particular vulnerability due to simple math. On any given play the pitcher is by far the closest person on the field to the hitter (aside from the catcher, who is behind the hitter and at least somewhat out of the way, but with his own perils). Furthermore, the pitcher is typically in a position, after delivering his pitch, not suitable for defense. Even the most well-prepared pitcher is still vulnerable to a line drive that rockets directly back at him at speeds over 100 mph (even faster, in most cases, than the pitch he just threw). In short, if the batter happens to hit that kind of line drive, in most cases the pitcher has little recourse but to throw up his hands -- his glove, specifically -- and pray.
Mitchell became the ninth (at least) MLB pitcher to be hit by a line drive in the past five seasons. Also earlier this month, Evan Marshall, a minor-league pitcher in the Arizona Diamondbacks' organization, was struck by a line drive while pitching for Reno against El Paso, in AAA; he suffered a fractured skull and required surgery to relieve swelling and pressure, and had twenty stitches removed from an incision on his head the day before Mitchell's scare.
Scary as these incidents are, it is still the case that no major-league pitcher has ever died from being struck in the head by a batted ball. The only fatality in major league history remains Ray Chapman, the Cleveland shortstop who died after being struck by a pitch in a game ninety-five years ago yesterday. That would be 1920. In more recent times, Mike Coolbaugh, a minor-league coach, died due to being struck in the neck by a line drive while coaching first base. No pitchers, though, at least not professionally.
That doesn't mean some careers weren't altered or ended, though. Probably the most famous such case is that of Cleveland pitcher Herb Score, in 1957; though he denied being affected by the injury and trauma, his career never regained the heights it had reached before the injury. (Score would enjoy years of fame as Cleveland's radio announcer.) A more recent example is that of Bryce Florie, a journeyman pitcher who was struck by a line drive while pitching for the Boston Red Sox against the Yankees in September 2000. Florie attempted to return for the Red Sox in 2001, but mostly bounced around minor-league teams for the rest of that decade.
Every sport has its dangers, and baseball has its share. How best to handle this particular danger, though, has proven challenging, though not for lack of effort on MLB's part (in contrast to certain professional sports leagues I could name). After Chapman's death (in 1920, remember), baseball eventually developed the batting helmet, which finally became standard equipment in the game...thirty years later. A first model of a padded cap for pitchers is now available, though only one pitcher has used it in play so far (Alex Torres, who is currently in the minors with the New York Mets; he played for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013 when Alex Cobb was struck by a line drive). Most pitchers who have tried it have found it bulky and difficult to wear.
It is worth noting, in this case, that even such a cap would not have made a difference for Mitchell, who was struck below the part of his head that would have been covered by a cap.
While this is a seemingly intractable problem in baseball, it is not routine; it does not happen every play or every game, or even every season. If this happens to a pitcher, it is an example of something going horribly wrong. One might also point to the horrific leg injuries suffered by basketball players Paul George of the Indiana Pacers (while preparing for Team USA), or by college player Kevin Ware, then with the Louisville Cardinals, during the NCAA tournament in 2013. Something went extremely, horribly wrong in each case; a routine play turned anything but routine. That doesn't make the incidents any less horrific, or their consequences any less difficult. But it isn't routine.
This still leaves us with only one kind of traumatic sports injury that accumulates over numbers of routine plays. And if you've paid any kind of attention to this blog, you know which one I'm talking about.
No comments:
Post a Comment