Hit And Run

Funny. You get hit by a car going 80 miles an hour, and you get killed. But you get hit by a baseball going 80 miles an hour, and you just get an enormous bruise.

Today, I was shooting a local high school baseball game from my usual spot, a folding chair behind the backstop. Because I have to shoot through a chain-link fence, I have to pull my chair up very close to the backstop and lean forward to get the fence out of the picture as much as possible. I'm not exactly pressed up against the backstop, but I'm just inches away from it.

So, the pitcher throws an inside fastball, and the batter foul-tips it back to the backstop. To exactly where my right knee is. Now, my knee is about an inch or two behind the fence, but a 80 mile an hour foul tip tends to force the chain-link back a little. It hit me on the leg, just on the side of my knee. It hurt. Quite a bit. Not quite enough for me to swear loudly in front of dozens of parents, but close. Ten minutes later, it still hurt. Three innings later, it still hurt. So, I get back to the van, pull up the leg of my pants to take a peek, and I have a round bruise about four inches in diameter. The center of it isn't black and blue yet, because it's too swollen.

Here's the sad part. I get hit by the pitch, it hurts like a bitch, and the first thought that comes to mind?

Woah... If that thing had hit me just an inch higher and two inches to the right, it might have shattered my kneecap. Damn. I would have gotten at least a week or two off of work with a shattered kneecap!

Just my luck. A painful injury and I'm not even going on the Disabled List.