Dodged a Bullet, Sort of .....

Last night, I was assigned to work a NABF 18U game at Cene Park.  I arrived to find out that it was the championship game of the tournament and I was given the opportunity to work the plate on a 3-man crew.  The first batter of the game, in the middle of his at bat, asks for time.  I came up to call and signal time out, pointing to the batter.  For some unexplained reason, the batter took a step out of the box and one or two steps back, then proceeded to take a full swing.  The bat struck the right side of my wrist.  I don't remember my exact words - they may or may not have been family friendly.  However, the pain was excruciating.  As I looked down at my wrist, it had already swollen to nearly twice its size.  I was sure it was broken until I realized that I could move my fingers and flex my wrist in every direction.  Nonetheless, after some ice and the profuse apologies by the batter, I decided to carry on for the time being - with my hand obviously well behind my back.  It turns out that the batter was the starting pitcher for the other team.  No wonder the profuse apologies!!!

With the ache now traveling up my entire arm, I made it through the first batter.  The second batter came up and around the third pitch, the catcher called for an outside curve ball.  The pitcher had other ideas and fired a fast ball over the inside part of the plate.  The catcher didn't move as the ball whizzed past him and struck me in the dangling throat guard and then my collar bone area.  The throat guard was ripped off by the force of the pitch as the crowd groaned quite audibly.  Somehow I survive this batter, too.  The third batter, with me now in pain in two places, carelessly uses his back swing to throw a massive gob of dirt into the face of the catcher and me.  After a minute of wiping off my face and clearing my eyes of dirt, my partner on third base loudly asks, for all in the park to hear, if I have my cup on.  The crowd roars with laughter.  I'm still in pain.

Finally, the half inning ends and I call my partners in for a chat.  I tell them I'm fairly concerned about my wrist and both encourage me to get to the hospital.  One of them trots off to change for the plate.  My other partner and I finish out the first inning with no further incidents.  In the locker room, I take off my gear as a fellow ump, who just happened to be watching the game, helped pack my bag and carry it the car.  I call my wife and meet her at the emergency room.  Fortunately, the ER is not too busy and I get in to see a doctor within 10 minutes.  I get an x-ray and wait about an hour before the doctor comes back with the diagnosis.  To my relief, it is just a deep bruise that needs to be wrapped and iced for a few days.  I need to take an anti-inflammatory medicine as well as not move my wrist around a lot for a few days (yep, I am indeed using my hand/wrist to type this missive - so much for being a good patient!).  The doctor also says no umpiring for the rest of the week.  That's ok with me - the summer season ends this coming weekend.  Hence, I'm retired until August 16th, but ever so grateful that I still have the chance to become un-retired.