[PGalt]

My 3rd baseman (I coached youths for 14 years) was struck in the chest by a line-drive (16 years ago). He barely had time to get his glove up as it glanced off the top and struck him squarely in the chest. He went straight down. A fan (who was a nurse) rushed onto the field to assist. He never lost consciousness, but sat on the ground for several minutes with the wind knocked out of him. His father then took him to the hospital for x-ray and observation. He ended up OK with only a bruise. Scary....

....but not as bad as my catcher (5 years later) took a fastball in the nose as he squared to bunt. I’ve never been that near so much blood in my life...there was a pool of it in the batter’s box. He was stabilized (by us coaches) and driven to the hospital and only ended up with a broken nose. Very scary.

Sad story, MissouriConservative. Thanks for posting.

[SoftballMominVA]

My catcher daughter suffered a severe concussion at the plate after she had thrown off her helmet during play and the whole thing broke down. She was hit square in the forehead, the seam of the ball split her head open, with the cut laid open to the bone and she fell to her back twitching. 7 years later she still has a seam shaped scar on her forehead but was back playing less than 3 days after the injury. When she broke her eye bone, she was playing the next day. She also has a permanently jammed thumb and a partially fused ankle from 2 other collisions... and I believe a brand new scar on her thigh from these nifty new metal cleats that the girls are allowed to wear, from yet another collision at the plate.

So yeah, I know what you mean by scared -- been there, done that!