NEW YORK — Players arrived at Yankee Stadium wearing face masks and hand sanitizers, fearing an invisible enemy that has already sickened millions of people around the world. But it was something else, something much more common, which led to one of the most terrifying moments at this stage in recent memory.
It was a baseball, hit by a man swinging harder than anyone on the planet, that caused the Yankees to panic in the first full “spring” workout. Masahiro Tanaka threw the pitch, and a split second later, the laser from Giancarlo Stanton’s bat had connected to the head of the Japanese starter in a disgusting way.
That’s how fast the ball traveled when it hit Tanaka: After impact, it floated through the air for a full five seconds before landing on the grass. Tanaka, by then, was already wrinkled in the pile; Stanton lowered his head in a very different kind of agony inside the batting box as the stadium fell silent.
Less than an hour after training, the mood went from awkward to downright funeral in the Bronx. The launcher cautiously returned to the shelter with trainers at his side before being taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital for further evaluation.
Stanton, meanwhile, left the field for a long stretch. Her muzzle velocity exceeded 120 mph early last season. It’s hard not to wonder if the already-fragile hitter will need time to shake off the terrible accident that started this season.
Bottom line: This was a horrible way to start this reboot season, the only silver lining that came with the afternoon news that Tanaka’s concussion-like symptoms had improved. He was released, thankfully, that night.
“It’s horrible,” said Jordan Montgomery, the next pitcher to step on the mound. He had not planned to use a protective L screen for his own training on Saturday, but he quickly changed his mind after the Tanaka left the field. “It’s a weird accident with a one in a million chance of it happening, and when it does happen, it’s scary.”
It was an obvious question immediately after: Where was the L screen that protects the pitchers when Tanaka was on the mound? He was launching a simulated game, according to a team spokesperson, in which screens are rarely used.
Still, this was the first workout after three months of inactivity. It’s natural for Tanaka to brush off some rust, and the Yankees could be kicking themselves for not taking every precaution with the daily dangers of baseball the same way they do with the coronavirus.
“We always give that option. (Tanaka) didn’t want it, ”said manager Aaron Boone. “You have to go out at some point without him, but as we move forward, we will have boys who will have him out there. Obviously, it is unfortunate that it happened today, and in many ways we feel lucky that it was not really a bad thing. But that is the risk involved. “
It’s hard not to shake your head at the irony: for all the effort put into protecting the team from the coronavirus, and to be clear, all of that is understandable given that some positive COVID-19 tests could jeopardize the entire season – The dangers centenarians of the sport resurfaced with a single stroke of the bat.
From the press box, as he lay motionless on the mound, the concern was not when Tanaka might launch again. It was if he would get up at all. That was Boone’s first thought: “You care about a boy’s life. That is your immediate focus.
Now the team hopes to hear more about Tanaka’s status in the future. This is the reality of a shortened season, of course. An injury that could have been absorbed into the 162 game routine has devastating potential in a 60 game sprint.
Boone revealed that two players, infielder DJ LeMahieu and reliever Luis Cessa, had tested positive for COVID-19 before reaching the Bronx. Neither player is ill, but the news was more to worry about with the start of this season less than three weeks away.
Ultimately, it will be up to players to enforce well-known preventive measures as the number of cases across the country increases. But every trip to the stadium is a reminder of how much is out of the team’s control; after all, there is a reason why so many epidemiologists believe that this reset is doomed to failure.
Maybe that’s why the Yankees manager already seemed exhausted on his Zoom call with reporters. Boone is beginning to navigate a championship or fall team during what appears to be one of the strangest seasons in the history of professional sports.
That’s pretty difficult without this terrifying reminder on Day 1 that, in baseball, the greatest danger is often there in the name of the game.
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Steve Politi can be contacted at [email protected].
