Rick Helling is a fucking man

[Easy Mac]

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL: Pitcher Helling impaled with 15-inch shard from broken bat


North Dakota native escapes serious injury in the minors

By Tom Haudricourt

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Right-hander Rick Helling, who pitches for the Milwaukee Brewers' Class AAA Nashville affiliate, avoided serious injury Friday night despite being impaled in his left forearm by a large shard from a broken bat in a game against New Orleans.

In the top of the seventh inning, New Orleans catcher Craig Kuzmic's bat splintered as he fouled off a pitch from Helling. The bat split into several pieces and a narrow piece about 15 inches long stuck in Helling's right forearm, just above his glove hand.

As North Dakotan Helling walked toward the Nashville dugout at Greer Stadium, trainer Jeff Paxson ran onto the field and put a towel over the piece of bat protruding from the pitcher's arm. Team physician Clark Lea removed the shard in the trainer's room and Helling was sent to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to have the arm X-rayed and the wound irrigated.

"It went in on an angle, about 3 inches," Paxson said. "I've never seen anything like it in 18 years in baseball."

Catcher Julio Mosquera wasn't sure what happened at first but turned his head away when he saw the bat fragment sticking in Helling's arm.

"I almost fainted," Mosquera said. "I never saw anything like that in my life."

"He took it like a man," Kremblas said. "I went in and watched and the doctor was pulling hard to get it out.

"Luckily, it went in on an angle. It's his left arm so if there's no structural damage hopefully he won't have to go on the DL. I've never seen that. It was pretty gross."

Wow, I've honestly never heard of that in a baseball game before.

[Julio Riddols]

My initial reaction to the thread title had me thinking, yeah, sure Rick Helling probably gets some sex every now and then, but now.. "I've got wood" takes on a whole new meaning. Ouch and a half.

[CraigSca]

I've had the "15-inch shard of broken bat stuck in left arm" injury in OOTP lots of times.

[Joe]

i'd hit it

[Eaglesfan27]

It hit him.

[Joe]

anyone else read the title of this post as "Rick Helling is fucking a man"

[st.cronin]

I find it hard to believe a baseball player is from North Dakota. Baseball season can't be longer than about 2 weeks there.

[HomerJSimpson]

It would be more impressive if he pitched the rest of the game with the bat fragment in his arm. Then he'd be a real man.

[sovereignstar]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

I find it hard to believe a baseball player is from North Dakota. Baseball season can't be longer than about 2 weeks there.

weatherman up!

[sovereignstar]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/player...e?statsId=6980

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/player...e?statsId=5634

[dixieflatline]

I was at that game and it was the craziest thing I have ever seen at a game. He didn't even have time to flinch to get out of the way and when the bat hit him he didn't even make a sound. He just calmly walked to the dugout and pointed to his arm. I swear the trainer almost past out when he looked at it. Fortuneately, the wound was just superficial and he should be fine.

[sterlingice]

Ok, that's just cool. That he got a shard of bat stuck in his arm, sure. That someone on FOFC was one of the few thousand people there- that's impressive.

SI

[dixieflatline]

A quick update:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Former major league pitcher Rick Helling of the Nashville Sounds is expected to start next week as scheduled, five days after he was impaled in his non-throwing arm by a piece of broken bat.

Helling, who pitched in the majors for 10 seasons, will start Wednesday against Albuquerque, Sounds spokesman Doug Scopel said Saturday.

Helling was facing New Orleans' Craig Kuzmic in the seventh inning Friday when the bat shattered and a 3-inch piece of wood struck his left forearm, according to Scopel.

Scopel said Helling was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released.

"There was no internal damage," Scopel said. "They stitched him up and released him and he's on target for his next start."

Helling ended up with the victory in the 13-3 win by the Sounds, the Milwaukee Brewers' Triple-A affiliate.

Helling was 90-78 with a 4.77 ERA in 225 starts with Texas, Florida, Arizona and Baltimore. Helling has not pitched in the major leagues since 2003.

Looks like he is going to make his next start. He really IS a man.

BTW, even though Nashville has an older stadium they draw pretty well as far as minor league teams go. There actually were 6,205 people at the game. Increasing the odds that FOFC is represented.