Adrian Beltre gets hit on his backside and everyone laughs
A player getting hit by a pitch is rarely funny. A human is being hit by a small, hard object traveling between 80 and 100 mph, and that could result in a serious injury. But Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre proved yesterday that every now and then, a player getting hit by a pitch can be funny. It just depends on where he’s hit.
This very special hit by pitch happened in the bottom of the first inning of the Rangers’ game against the Minnesota Twins. Tyler Duffey was pitching for the Twins, and Beltre came up with one out and a runner on first. It seemed like a pretty normal at-bat at first. A called strike, a swinging strike, and a foul put Beltre and a 0-2 hole, then a ball in the dirt got him to a 1-2 count.
Duffey’s fifth pitch of the at-bat wasn’t as normal as the rest of them, though. He threw a 90 mph fastball that started tailing inside toward Beltre, and it didn’t stop. Beltre instinctively turned the back of his body toward the pitcher, and the baseball hit him. It hit him right on the butt.
It had to sting, so Beltre started rubbing his left butt cheek as he walked up the line to first base. (One of the laughing broadcasters said he was “rubbing his wallet.”) At this point, there was no sign of a smile from Adrian Beltre, but his teammates couldn’t stop giggling at what they’d just seen.
But as Beltre approached first base coach Hector Ortiz, he had a huge smile on his face, and he shared a giggle with Twins first baseman Joe Mauer before getting back to the game.
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If Beltre didn’t think it was funny, his teammates (not to mention this post) would have seemed mean. Thankfully, Beltre has a sense of humor so we can all laugh at this without guilt. Best wishes to Beltre’s rear end, which we hope will recover soon.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
