Nine-year-old Kansas batboy dies after blow to head
By Kevin Murphy
KANSAS CITY, Kan., August 2 (Reuters) - A 9-year-old batboy for a Kansas baseball team died on Sunday after being accidentally struck in the head by a player taking practice swings while waiting for his turn at the plate, the team said.
Kaiser Carlisle was knocked unconscious by the blow to the back of his head from a batter warming up during a game on Saturday in Wichita, bringing play to a halt as emergency medical personnel rushed onto the field, the Liberal Bee Jays baseball team said.
He was taken to hospital in critical condition and died on Sunday evening, the team said in a statement on its Facebook page.
"Please keep his family and our team in your thoughts and prayers," it said.
Kaiser was serving as a batboy for the team from Liberal, Kansas, competing in the National Baseball Congress World Series, which consists of teams from 15 amateur and semi-professional leagues in the United States and Canada.
The team said Kaiser was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and was moving to collect a used bat when he was struck.
The Bee Jays announcement of Kaiser's death on Facebook gathered hundreds of messages from mourners within just an hour.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City; Additional reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Sandra Maler and Clarence Fernandez)
