What are the odds of this happening?
You would have to think pretty slim, but the unlikely odds didn’t stop this foul ball from flying in and hitting Yankees 84-year-old announcer John Sterling right in the forehead.
During Saturday night’s matchup between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, the Aaron Judge led Yankees team was trying to take care of business in the top of the 9th inning. Red Sox’s Justin Turner was acting as the designated hitter in the last out of the ballgame when he fouled the ball back into the booth.
Sterling’s call in the video starts like this:
“And now the 3-2 (pitch), swung on, a pop foul back here.”
Thats when a baseball comes comically rocketing into the announcer’s booth, nailing Sterling in the temple and skidding off somewhere behind him. The sheer terror, which is perfectly fine to emit in a situation like this, shows that Sterling really had no idea where the ball was as it came back towards the booth.
He continues on air after the ball flies right off his head:
“Ow! Ow! Ow. It really hit me, I didn’t know it was coming back that far.”
Sterling takes the hit to the dome like a champ and plugs ahead in true “the show must go on” fashion like the professional that he is. For just being hit in the face with a baseball, his end of the game call was tremendous:
“So once again it’ll be a 3-2 (pitch). Holmes ready to deal, a ground ball to third. Donaldson squares, throws to first in time, ball game over, Yankees win. The Yankees win!”
I’m guessing that long, drawn out “the” that Sterling pulls off is normal. Otherwise, they might need to get him into the concussion protocol…
After he wrapped up the end of the game, Sterling decided to once again touch on the crazy foul ball incident:
“You know that foul ball actually hit me, it kind of glanced off my forehead, so I took one for the team.”
Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka checked up on Sterling after knowing that he took the foul ball to the head, to which the announcer replied:
“Yes, I am okay. Just a glancing blow.”
I’ve never heard the word “glancing” so many times in my life. Glad that Sterling was okay though, and hopefully he got an ice pack after the game in the locker room.
Take a look:
