And not even because of Maddux this time! We all went to the Braves game tonight. Mom-Mom was in town and so were the Phillies - a no brainer. Eli brought his glove because we were sitting near the bullpen along the third base line. We saw no action all night until just as we were gathering our things to leave. Eli was still at the wall, watching the outfielders and waiting for us. Lehr was right next to him and I was in my seat, putting the kids' water bottles in my bag. A ball came for our seats and Lehr reached up for it. I tracked it with my eyes until it was going past Lehr and then looked down. I then felt the ball land in my lap (after a bounce). Cool...the kids would love it. I picked up the ball and then saw Eli holding his face and crying. Gray hair #1 of the night. Lehr didn't see it once it went past him, I didn't see it....we didn't even know how bad the ball hit him - I think that was the worst part. The immediate good news was Raul Ibanez (Phillies) was on the wall and he wasn't leaving until he knew Eli was ok. He even gave Eli a high five.
Quickly we took him up to the top and a medic came to check him out. His cheek was red and starting to swell a little, but nothing else appeared to be wrong, which we were very grateful for. Ice, another medic and then a trip on the golf cart to the first aid office. By this time Eli was fine, just tired. They checked him out a few more times, as did I, but it appeared to everyone that he would just have some swelling and bruising. He even perked up enough to play a quick game of baseball in the kids' field on the way out.
Once we got home we found a few pictures and a video of what happened. Holy moly. The ball went right through the guy above Eli's hands and landed straight on my boy. Thank God he was wearing a baseball cap and the impact was slightly lessened. Thank God the ball went through the guy's hands first and it was slightly slowed down. Thank God Eli was standing where he was and not 1 or 2 inches to the right; as it was, the ball grazed him on the way down instead of stopping movement as it would of had it hit him square. Gray hairs....they're still growing tonight... (Another link to a video showing Eli and Raul interacting briefly.)
Original Video - More videos at TinyPic
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