Eric Shortell doesn’t want to be That Guy.
See, Shortell experienced a hitter’s worst nightmare on June 24. On that day in his first at-bat of the Arizona League Royals season, Shortell got a 92 mph fastball up and inside. He saw the ball coming toward him, but it was coming too fast to react. He stood his ground, thinking it was going behind him.
“It stayed straight,” he said. “Right in my jaw.”
Shortell stood in shock for a moment, trying to gather what had just happened. He thought he had lost his teeth, and he got mad. He threw down his helmet in frustration, started toward the pitching mound and the umpire cut him off. And then...
“The next thing I remember is my jaw just dropping,” he said. “That’s when I realized that my jaw was completely broken. ... It felt like my jaw was eight feet long.”
For the complete story see the Gazette print edition or the online print edition at
http://www.emporiagazette.com/pdf. To subscribe to the print edition or the online
print edition go to http://www.emporiagazette.com/subscribe.
madpoet (anonymous) says...
Poor guy! I hope he heals up ok. That must really be painful.
July 31, 2009 at 2:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )