One of them was a pitch, hit him in the chest and stopped his heart. While playing outfield in Little League I was in fact hit in the middle of the chest by a line drive when I ran to catch it. I guess sometimes it will kill, sometimes it won’t. I’m glad it didn’t in my case but too bad for the other kid. Baseball is not without danger because of that hardball flying around.
what i recall when i heard one of the incidents was that it was either the runner or basemen who got nailed by a line drive,i think it hit the runner on first base,some minor league game.,it was just a heartbreaker that these two stories made the news around 2/3 weeks apart.
My oldest Brother was a great high school football running back. He was big, fast, and strong.
One night he had broken through the line and linebackers with only the safety left. The safety hit him right in the middle of the chest with the front of his helmet. He literally stopped Joe for a second. Then Joe got his feet going again and ran right over him.
A few days later Joe told me that the guy had hit him right where the shoulder pads lace up and it still really hurt. Joe died of a heart attack at age 59. I always wondered if that hit, had damaged his heart and eventually caused the heart attack. I really don’t know tho.