PostedAugust 18, 2021, 11:22
An Oakland Athletics player was hospitalized after receiving a baseball in the face. Miraculously, he got away with it.
Chris Bassitt was shot in the face.
It was the disaster scenario of any baseball game, an extremely rare incident too: the pitcher of the Oakland Athletics, a team of the North American Professional League (MLB), was struck head-on by the returned ball at full speed. (at more than 160 km / h) by the opposing batsman. A baseball? Almost as hard as a rock and potentially deadly when returned at full speed by means of a bat.
Chris Bassitt, the A’s pitcher, had no chance to dodge the projectile. The distance between the mound where the thrower takes place and the opposing batter is indeed only 18 meters. With a ball that shoots at nearly 150 km / h and takes 400 milliseconds to reach the drummer, the reaction time is minimal.
Teammates and opponents in shock
Startled and shocked, his teammates and opponents feared the worst when they saw him collapse after being hit in the head by the bullet. Last I heard, it did not damage the pitcher’s eye, who remained conscious, but further medical examinations have yet to determine the exact nature and severity of his injuries, A’s manager Bob Melvin said. .
A year ago, pitcher Masahiro Tanaka (31) experienced a similar mishap: he was also hit in the face by a bullet during the New York Yankees’ first official training session. He had left with a concussion and great fear.
