Fire Gardy

Buster Olney relates this interesting story about Twins prospect Brock Peterson (insider only):

Twins infielder Brock Peterson had this story of justice from last year. He was at the plate and smoked a foul ball into the stands and hit a woman square in the forehead, the blood pouring off the wound. Peterson was shaken by this, stepped out of the batter’s box to try to compose himself, and the home plate umpire humanely encouraged him to get settled. “He gave me something like three minutes,” Peterson recalled.

As medical personnel rushed to help the woman — who would turn out to be OK — Peterson remained out of the box. The opposing pitcher started yelling for him to get going, to get the game restarted. The pitcher’s demeanor, in the face of what was going on in the stands, apparently bothered the umpire, because when Peterson took a 3-2 pitch right down the middle, the umpire called it ball four.

Frankly, I’d rather the umpires stick to the strike zone rather than trying to judge the pitcher’s morals.

But I think this story brings into focus the fact that a baseball game isn’t the safest place to be, and that when a fan gets hurt the players themselves can be just as shaken as the injured party.

I know Brock Peterson will probably never play for the Twins — he’s stuck behind these guys called “Justin Morneau” and “Jason Kubel” — but as of now I’m rooting for him to succeed in this league. I hope he makes it somewhere.