Every man’s nightmare became a reality for major league umpire Brad Myers on Monday.
Myers was working third base for a spring training game between the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians when Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips sent a laser of a line drive directly at him. The ump tried to leap to safety, but he couldn’t avoid Phillips’ heat-seeking liner, which nailed Myers in … well, a very unfortunate spot.
Myers stayed down on the infield grass for several minutes before he was carted off and later replaced on the field by replay official John Tumpane.
“They’re in a vulnerable spot out there,” Indians pitcher Corey Kluber, who was on the mound at the time, told MLB.com. “You see a lot of times, they’re just able to get out of the way. That one was just kind of one of the balls that chased him, I guess.”
Yeah, you could say that.
Check out the cringe-inducing sequence in the GIF and video below.
[mlbvideo id=”31568447″ width=”640″ height=”358″ /]
GIF via Deadspin
