The horrifying sight of Red Sox pitcher Bryce Florie, slumped over on the mound, blood pouring from his face, his eyesight and his career in jeopardy, serves as another chilling reminder that baseball is a hard game played by hard men, a game underestimated in its danger.
|  | | Bryce Florie's full recovery remains uncertain. |
"I haven't seen it. ... I don't want to see it," Braves pitcher Tom Glavine said several days after Florie was hit flush in the face by a line drive by the Yankees' Ryan Thompson. "That is my worst fear. Every player goes out there knowing that any day could be your last day."
We romanticize about the beauty, the artistry and the rich tradition of baseball. Playing catch with your son in the backyard for the first time is an unforgettable experience. So is that first autographed baseball, so pristine, sitting so proudly on the mantle. A new baseball is called "a pearl." How romantic, how elegant.
But the moment that pearl leaves Pedro Martinez's hand, or Mark McGwire's bat, romance is replaced by peril. There is nothing more frightening in sports as that six-ounce baseball thrown 95 mph at a hitter's head, or, as in Florie's case, a ball traveling 120 mph right at your face from 55 feet away. It's going so fast, sometimes you don't even see it, but can you hear it coming, like a giant bee attacking. Then those whirling, red seams bore into your skin like a buzzsaw.
Fear and danger are what make baseball the hardest game in the world to play. Please, don't even suggest golf is harder. No one has ever stood on the first tee with fear in his heart that as he starts his backswing, he might get hit in the head with a ball going nearly 100 mph. Ask any football player and he'll tell you he'd rather catch a pass over the middle or play on the kickoff team than stand in that batter's box, wearing only a helmet with no facemask, against Randy Johnson throwing 98 from the side. Basketball? "What's the worst thing Michael Jordan can do to you? He can dunk on you," Cubs infielder Jeff Huson once said. "What's the worst thing that Randy Johnson can do? He can kill you."
Fear is why little kids turn to soccer the first time they take one off the head. It's why high school kids can't play in college, it's why college kids can't play professionally, it's why Double-A kids can't play in the big leagues and why some big leaguers bail against that hard slider. "Whether you're three feet and 100 pounds, or 6-feet-10 and 300 pounds, the fear of the ball is the same," Orioles manager Mike Hargrove has said. "That baseball can really hurt you."
Hopefully, Bryce Florie will see again out of his right eye. Hopefully, he'll be able to pitch again. Mike Wilson couldn't. In 1994, Wilson was a prospect in the Tigers system. On the final day of spring training, his 21st birthday, Wilson was hit in the mouth by a line drive by -- how fitting -- a guy named Boo Thompson. Wilson fell to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth. Two teeth fell in his hand. A third tooth was found near second base.
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What's the worst thing Michael Jordan can do to you? He can dunk on you. What's the worst thing that Randy Johnson can do? He can kill you. ” |
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— Jeff Huson |
"Actually, it hit me in a good spot," Wilson would say later. "Two inches higher, and I'm dead."
That essentially ended his career. When he came back a month later, his velocity had dropped from 94 to 85, and he'd lost his curveball because he never finished his pitching motion: He was too concerned about getting in fielding position to protect himself. And any ball that came remotely close to him, he flinched. After two years of pitching afraid, he had to retire.
"Since I was eight years old, I've had a recurring dream that I got hit in the teeth with a baseball," Wilson would say several years after retiring. "And my worst nightmare came true." He keeps the three teeth in a glass to remind him how his life was changed in one day.
There are countless stories about pitchers being hit. Herb Score never recovered from being hit in the head by Gil McDougald's line drive in 1957. Tigers pitcher Willie Blair almost got killed when hit by a line drive by Julio Franco several years ago. In 1995, then-Phillies pitcher Norm Charlton got hit by a line drive in the forehead by the Padres' Steve Finley. Charlton's face was so deformed -- two black eyes made him look "like a unicorn," he said -- that he tried to buy a TV two days after being hit, and the salesgirl couldn't even wait on him.
And it's not just pitchers in danger. Infielders are, too. The average fan should, just once, stand even with third base with Vladimir Guerrero at the plate, and see how scary that is. You will have a new appreciation for the game. In 1996, Twins second baseman Denny Hocking was hit flush in the mouth by a seering one-hopper off the bat of Jose Canseco. Hocking's front teeth were so mangled they were pointing backwards in his mouth. He spent 2 1/2 hours in the dentist chair. He couldn't chew gum for two years. Yet three days after he nearly got killed by a ground ball, he was back on the field, his mouth wired shut.
"I'm a baseball player," he said. "I had to get back out there as soon as I could." He had to field that first grounder with his face down. It took a bad hop, went straight at his face, but he caught it. The average person would have never been able to look at a ground ball again.
The greatest fear comes from a hitter. There are countless stories about the horrific beanings in baseball history, including two by Yankees coach Don Zimmer. One side of his face was crushed by a fastball by minor leaguer Jim Kirk in 1953, before batting helmets were widespread; Zimmer was in a coma for 13 days, he was in the hospital for 31 days, he lost 42 pounds and he had to learn how to walk again. "I was this close," he said, his index and middle finger an inch apart. From dying, that is.
Zimmer sat out the rest of that season, but returned the next, stood right on top of the plate again and started crushing the ball. So what happened? They started throwing at him again. That's the cruel nature of the game. But Zimmer moved closer to the plate. He got hit in the head, and nearly killed again, in 1956. So he moved closer to the plate.
"I played nine years in the big leagues, and I can't remember 100 at-bats where I didn't have some fear," Ken Harrelson, a White Sox broadcaster, has said. Yet he was a good major-league hitter, the American League RBI champion in 1968. He was able to deal with his fear, which many can't. "There's only one player I've ever met who was totally fearless at plate ... Tony Conigliaro," Harrelson said.
Hawk, before or after his beaning from Jack Hamilton ruined his fabulous career in 1967?
"Both," Harrelson said. "It never bothered him. He had to retire because he couldn't see out of his left eye."
Hopefully, Bryce Florie will see again out of his right eye. Hopefully, he will pitch again in the big leagues. And hopefully, all who saw what happened to him will have a better understanding about the dangers of baseball, and the courage it takes to get hit and keep on playing.
ESPN The Magazine's Tim Kurkjian writes a weekly column for ESPN.com. | |
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