About three weeks ago, an umpire was throwing BP to his teenage son (14, I think). There was no L-screen and the umpire took a line drive between the eyes from about 30 feet away. He just completed his first of several surgeries to correct the many problems the impact caused. Below is a sort of recap of what the umpire has gone through and is still going through:
Umpire had an 11-hour surgery. He had a broken septum and sinus his sinus is now removed. He had broken orbital sockets and the ENT had to re-space his eyes. Biggest thing was one of the broken bones penetrated his brain coating that contains a fluid, and that fluid was leaking so the neural surgeon had to patch it as well as remove other fragments. He was still on morphine as of a few days ago, but in good spirits. He was in head trauma ICU. Damage was way worse than the doctor's ever expected.
The umpire is Barry McCabe. Obviously, our thoughts and prayers go out to him, his son, wife and family.
But it also revisits an ongoing, though not-so-hyped issue. I have seen CDMSBL players use an L-screen in batting cages and at just one field when working out, or before games, and that is at the middle school in Colonie. We don't use one at New Scotland or the Satellite field.
Not looking to get some kind of rule passed. Just something to think about as we look to get L-screens at both those fields. Please be careful!
Jim K: I've always thought it would be a sound investment for the league to purchase an L Screen for each of the primary fields they use. And go one step further by purchasing a chain and lock and issuing the combination to each of the team managers. As an athletic director at a high school in Vermont, I know how these things can disappear (although, you probably don't have those kind of issues in New York).
Jim - thanks for posting. We take so much for granted, yet our lives can change forever in a instant. Barry has a long affiliation with the Clifton Park Baseball program and runs the training program for it's youth umpires. Thoughts, prayers and well wishes are indeed sent to Barry and his family.
Yep, definitely need some L-screens @ our primary fields... Sorry to hear about Barry and yes, as everyone has said, thoughts and prayers with him and his family, especially his son...
On another lighter note, wow, those are some mighty hot pics John as man you're a good looking guy! If I batted the other way, I'd ask you out behind those L-screens we don't have... Errr wait, is that for another site???
Good thing you had the inexpensive Berkley's on, ey? Maybe the league could just issue everyone a pair of those instead???
-- Edited by Marcus Aurelius on Wednesday 1st of August 2012 08:12:50 AM
He isn't the only one that took a shot this year ..... this happened in my kid's last game this year .... it was the championship game and literally the last game of his little league / babe ruth career.
I was saved a ton of trouble by my cheap $15 berkley sunglasses... you can actually see where the stitches from the ball scraped the coating off the lens! .... if you look at the pics you can see how the glasses spread the impact out around my whole eye socket.
Simple answer might be to have the pitcher wear a helmet with a faceguard .... may look dumb but i know i would wear it!
