Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — During the offseason, many baseball fans turn their attention to football to pass the time until opening day. And I too sat down on Monday night, hoping for a good shootout game between the Bills and the Bengals. What I saw instead was horrifying. Bills safety Damar Hamlin made what looked to be a routine tackle on a receiver, hopped to his feet and then totally collapsed on the field.
Before it was over, Hamlin had to be administered CPR on the field, as he apparently had gone into cardiac arrest. He lay on the field for what seemed like an eternity before he was put into an ambulance and rushed to a local hospital, where he still remains in critical condition. After much debate and discussion, the game was cancelled and everybody went home with the same queasy feeling in the pit of their stomachs: “Did I just witness somebody die right in front of me?”
We don’t know the answer to that right now. But it certainly highlighted the tightrope that every professional athlete walks every time he steps on the field. Whether it’s a four-seam fastball or a hockey puck or a defensive lineman, things in sports move very fast, and make contact with an impact that you and I can only imagine. Heck, I broke my toe on a swing in a slow pitch softball game. It’s a wonder that more players aren’t seriously hurt or even worse in pro sports, where everything, including danger to life and limb, is magnified.
There have been many terrible injuries in baseball, but so far only one player has died from an on-field injury: Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians. During a game against the Yankees in 1920, he led off the fifth inning and the first pitch from righty sidewinder Carl Mays struck him on the left side of his head. Chapman crumpled to the ground. The home plate umpire immediately turned to the stands and requested the services of a physician. Two responded to the plea.
A silence came over the crowd as the doctors worked on Chapman. Eventually he was able to get to his feet with the aid of two teammates, and walked across the infield to the Cleveland clubhouse. But Chapman lost consciousness, and two teammates had to carry him to the clubhouse. Chapman was taken to St. Lawrence Hospital, a half-mile from the ballpark, for x-rays. It was feared that he might have a fractured skull. He survived an emergency surgery, but died from his injuries by the next morning.
And of course, we can’t discount the numerous severe injuries that have occurred in baseball from foul balls, including a 79-year-old fan at Dodger Stadium who was struck by a ball during a game in 2018 and died four days later.
But I guess it’s a matter of managed risk. Everyone who buys a ticket or steps on a field knows that there is a chance, however minute, that something horrible might happen that day.
Is the risk worth it? I don’t know a single person who actually plays sports who would answer the question with a no. These men love what they do, sometimes so much that other things in their lives suffer, but we can’t deny the power of sports.
Would life be safer if we all sat around coffee shops and discussed musical theater? Probably, but as we have learned very clearly in recent years, the purpose of life for some is not simply to “not die”. The purpose is to live.
Damar Hamlin chose to live. May God grant him many more years to do so.
