I played at Utah State University in 1997 before tearing my rotator cuff. We played a game in Ogden, Utah and something was wrong with the Ogden Raptors Minor League Field we were supposed to play on so it got moved to a High School Stadium that had not been used for a while and the infield was like concrete (literally). I remember all during pre-game thinking no matter what happened, I was not sliding on that field because I already had a huge open wound on my leg from earlier slides (I was really fast back then and stole a lot). First at bat, they play me to pull as a Right Handed Hitter because their starter was pretty slow, fastball in the low 80's and I tried to go opposite way and it worked, I slashed a line drive over the first basemans head and I am thinking triple all the way, as I am rounding second I pick up my third base coach and just started saying prayers in my head that he keeps his hands up. Sure enough about half way down the line he starts telling me to get down. In the heat of the moment, between curse words in my mind, I dont even think about it and slide safely for a triple. It was so bad the pain didn't hit me at first but I loked down at my leg anyways just to be safe and what was at first a pin sized red dot turned into an apple sized red stain of blood in about 2 seconds. They bandaged me up and I finished the game, but the wound was still open in some form or another for Months afterwards. NO triple is worth that unless its the MLB World Series!
Rhys Yeakley
|