Tagged: Bill Russell

September 19, 2010

Tyler Colvin Out For Year: What WGN, FS-F viewers saw

Thanks to the telecasts of the Cubs-Marlins by Fox Sports Florida and the superb DVR service of MLB.Com’s MLB.TV, we get a good, albeit blurry image of the incident this afternoon in Florida in which Cubs’ rookie outfielder Tyler Colvin suffered a season-ending partial lung collapse when he was in the chest speared by a large shard of the broken bat of teammate Wellington Castillo:

(C) MLB, FS-F, WGN-TV

Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune reports that the lack of blood or evident superficial damage hid a truly dangerous outcome: Colvin is being preventively treated for the possibility of a collapsed lung:

He’s being treated for pneumothorax, a puncture of the chest cavity, which allowed air into the chest wall and the potential of a collapsed lung. A tube was inserted into the wound, and Colvin is resting comfortably, but will remain hospitalized for 2-3 days for further examination, and manager Mike Quade said he will not play again this season.

There has been at least one occasion in baseball history where a broken bat shard has struck a player, but that was with a batter in the on deck circle. Bill Russell’s bat shattered and a piece hit his Dodger teammate Steve Yeager in the neck, actually piercing Yeager’s esophagus. Yeager required more than an hour-and-a-half’s surgery, and the injury led to the creation of the “throat flap” that would protect a catcher from a shard (or ball) injury to the same area. But there has never been any innovation to protect any other player on the field and that Colvin’s injury is the first of its kind in recent memory – especially in this day of easily-shattered maple bats – is truly extraordinary.

The gruesome images conjured up by the initial reports of Colvin being “rushed” to the hospital after having a broken bat “stuck” in his chest are fortunately not the reality, though these screen captures give an idea just how close a call this really was:

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COPYRIGHT MLB, WGN-TV, CHICAGO CUBS:

Reporter Wittenmeyer speculates there’s no reason to think Colvin will play again this season:

With only 13 games left in the season it appears unlikely he will play again this year. Colvin is tied for the major-league rookie lead with 20 homers.

August 29, 2009

Ted Kennedy And Baseball

Just a quick trip back in time, to 1964, after the late Senator had broken his back in a plane crash, in route to accepting his nomination for his first full term. Two of these figures are instantly recognizable – the one at the far left has chops particularly relevant here… try to ID them all before reading the caption below.

Got him yet?

One more line and the quiz ends, regardless.

Johnny Pesky – just before or just after his two-year tenure as Red Sox manager ended; legendary Celtic star and then announcer Tom Heinsohn, coach-GM Red Auerbach, coach-GM (and 20-year star center) Milt Schmidt of the Bruins, and Heinsohn’s teammates Bill Russell and Bob Cousy.

Russell – who basically does not do interviews unless he truly wants to – came on with us after the Kennedy Funeral service in Boston, which is not at all a tribute to the interviewers, but rather to the man whose funeral he attended this morning and early afternoon – who just happened to have thrown out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park this April. And that is baseball history, too. Kennedy’s grandfather, Mayor John “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald threw out the first pitch at the first Red Sox opening day ever at Fenway, in 1912.