Real Risks in Baseball: Tigers-Guardians Reminder

🎧 When a Tigers–Guardians matchup turned dangerous, Dan Riley explains why stepping into the batter’s box is riskier than most fans realize.


On today’s episode of Dan Riley’s Sports Talk, Dan highlights the real risks in baseball through the Tigers–Guardians matchup and the forgotten dangers of batting in the big leagues. When David Fry was struck by a pitch,

it served as a stark reminder of the hazards hitters face when stepping into the box against major league fastballs. Although a fatality from being hit by a pitch hasn’t occurred since 1920, the danger is still real. Baseball may often be called a “kids’ game,” but incidents like this prove the very adult risks that come with it. Every time a player steps onto the field, those risks are present.

⚾ Listen now as Dan Riley explains why baseball is more than just fun and games—it’s a sport where danger is always part of the play. 🥎

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daniel-riley-sports-talk-radio--4211915/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everybody, This is Dan Riley for Sports Talk Compassionate
World Internet Radio. In his book Baseball for Dummies, Joe
Morgan wrote that a fastball can quote Maime or even
kill you. What happened to David Fry when Cleveland played

(00:21):
the Detroit Tigers earlier this week could have been both,
and thank god David Fry walked away with the trainers.
Those of you who played little league baseball or softball
know the courage involved in risk and getting hit by
a pitch, and what happened here illustrates it quite nicely.

(00:45):
The only difference is the speed at which that ball
was going ninety nine miles an hour. We love to
pretend that baseball is an entirely safe alternative to contact sports,

(01:06):
but for decades we've failed to truly grasp the risks
involved in stepping up to the plate against major league pitching.
It was in my grandparents' lifetime the last time a

(01:30):
player was actually killed by a pitch. It involved a
player named Ray Chapman, who ironically played for Cleveland. Granted
it was a different name back then, but it was

(01:50):
the same franchise. Back in nineteen twenty, Ray Chapman was
hit in the head by a pitch thrown from a
guy named Carl Mays. Chapman would die twelve hours later.

(02:15):
He is the only person to have died of injuries
sustained during a professional baseball game, and because baseball has
been entirely free of fatalities since then, people seem to
have forgotten the risk, even though it's still there. Baseball,

(02:47):
for the record ignorantly concluded that they should wait three
decades following that tragedy to bring in batting helmets. Baseball
also risks collisions at home plate, even though thanks to concussions,

(03:12):
rules have been put in place to make them less likely.
We love to pretend that, say, the NFL is similar
to Pop Warner or pickup football. It isn't. It's much
much more dangerous, and the same applies to baseball as well.

(03:34):
Guys are bigger, can throw baseballs harder, and thus there
could be collisions on the base pass or a player
could get hit in the head with a fastball like
what happened here. You risk getting maimed or badly injured.

(03:58):
We're left to wonder if baseball has put enough safeguards
in place to prevent guys from getting killed or seriously injured.
One thing's for certain. I'm never gonna question the courage
of a batter who steps up to the plate. Ever Again,

(04:21):
we've been tricked the last few decades into thinking it's
an entirely safe profession. It's not. This is Dan Riley
for Sports Talk. Thank you so much for tuning in
and so long