Baseball is a sport that is more dangerous to physical integrity than it may seem. Despite the lack of contact between rival players, the power and speed of the ball can cause great scares. The use of a helmet is mandatory for batters, base runners and catchers, but not for pitchers or the rest of the defensive team. Nor do umpires have to wear it, but first and third base coaches do.
Foul balls can be a danger to players, coaches and umpires, as was demonstrated twice on Wednesday. A ‘lost’ ball after a poor batting by Mookie Betts (Los Angeles Dodgers) hit the back of Shohei Ohtani, MLB’s biggest star, when he was sitting quietly on the bench following the game.
A referee is knocked unconscious after being hit in the head by a ball
The anecdote did not go any further, but it did not take long to go viral on social networks. It is not often that you see a teammate involuntarily hit the ‘greatest player of all time’. However, a more serious impact was received by umpire Hunter Wendelstedt in the game between the Minnesota Twins and the New York Mets
A bad batting byTyrone Taylor(NY Mets) hit the 53-year-old veteran umpire on the head and he fell to the ground in shock and had to be taken to a hospital for tests to rule outsomething more than a simple ‘bump’.
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