Scary Moment... and a Rat

[tibear]

Originally Posted by GarthB

A few years back, in a legion game, I had a kid square to bunt on a breaking pitch. He offered at the ball, which he missed, and which then caught him in his manhood.

I called time and a deadball strike.

He dropped like a sack of potatoes and puked in the dirt.

After they cleaned him up, he started walking to first. I motioned him back and informed him that he had another opportunity to get a hit. Didn't have to eject anyone, but the on-site legion adminstrator had to escort his mom from the field.

Had the exact same situation with a 10 year old the other day where the pitch was coming straight at him and his defense mechanism was to try to hit the ball towards his dugout, he missed and it hit him square in the chest. I yell "Time. Strike Two".

Kid is crying, coach is yelling that the pitch hit him and the kid's mom is running from her lawnchair to check out little Jimmy.

Had to explain to all three that if the player tries to hit the ball it doesn't matter if he gets hit it is a deadball and a strike. Needless to say none of them were too impressed.

Here's where some of you are going to jump all over me. The next time this little guy came up he was the first up in the inning so I walked over to him and asked him if his coaches had ever taught him how to react when the ball is coming straight at him. He said no so I continued and explained to him how to always turn away from pitch and bend over so as to "protect" the bat and himself from getting hit somewhere where you don't want to get hit.

Two of the coaches overheard the conversation and immediately started to explain this to the other kids on the bench.

A 20 second discussion that hopefully helped the kids learn to protect themselves.

At the end of the game, the little guy, his mom and one of the coaches came over and thanked me for further explaining the call and what he should have done differently.