Minor League third baseman hit by car during game

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/s...rts/5972194.htm

 

T-Bones continue wild road trip tonight

 

T-Bones third baseman Jeff Brooks brought new meaning to hit-and-run.

 

Brooks, who hopes to be in the lineup when Kansas City's "other" baseball team plays at 7 tonight in Gary, Ind., is recovering from a bruise to his left knee. How it occurred was as odd as it gets.

 

Brooks was hit Tuesday in Joliet, Ill., by an orange Volkswagen. In an unlikely place.

 

In front of the dugout.

 

"I guess we have to start looking both ways when we come out of the dugout," T-Bones pitcher Jonathan Krysa said by phone Thursday, taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to the bizarre happening. "He (Brooks) is a big guy (6 feet 4, 242 pounds), and it was a little car, so the odds were in Jeff's favor."

 

A promotion in Joliet, Ill., between innings of the T-Bones' 9-7 loss to the JackHammers went awry. The car, driven by a teen-age girl, was entering from the left-field side of the stadium. It arrived in front of Kansas City's dugout at the same time Brooks was running out of the dugout to take his position.

 

"I heard this ba-boom, ba-boom, and I saw Jeff twirling and hitting the ground," Krysa said.

 

Brooks, hauled away on a stretcher, said: "I've never seen anything like it. Now that it looks like I'm going to be OK, I've kind of looked back and laughed at it. I guess I just never thought there would be traffic inside a stadium."

 

That incident ruined the whole night for T-Bones manager Al Gallagher, whose team was the victim of 10 stolen bases in the game by Joliet. That tied a Northern League record set in 1970.

 

"These kids are family. And when one of my family gets hit by a car, baseball is the last thing on my mind," Gallagher said. "After that, everything for us as a team was a blur. Nobody was into the game. But 10 stolen bases... that's awful. We went to sleep."

[Guest DrTom]

I'm reminded of that scene from The Naked Gun, during the baseball game, when the fielder gets run over by a car. Good to see the chap is OK, though.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Luckily there wasn't a Tiger on the field/