Baseball is not unlike a war.
-Ty Cobb

In the eyes of its fans, the game of baseball is an epic struggle, between right and wrong, good and evil, justice and outrage. The players are fanatically devout to their cause and the fans expect them to do all they can for their team - even if it means they will have to be put on the disabled list, or even if it will ruin their career. Baseball is a sport you've got to really want to play because the game will test you and try your commitment.

However, when people think of baseball, to most (that is, those who actually know how the game is played, which is actually a infinitesimally minuscule part of the world population) the image of a contact sport is not evoked. That is, very seldom do players tackle one another or have the opportunity to attack each other with the equipment (as they do in American football or in ice hockey).

However, people do sometimes get injured during the game's play. With sharp cleats on shoes, and fastballs often going at speeds upwards of 100 miles-per-hour, an improperly, accidentally or sadistically carried-out play can easily hurt a player. When a team plays 162 games per year, it's easy to see how the players can get injured.

Relatively few people have died in the long history of the game - especially since the advent of the batting helmet. However, almost anyone who has ever played the game seriously has been hurt by it somehow.

Game Accidents

Accidents during the course of the game are the most commonly seen baseball injuries. If someone is hurt during the game, the entire stadium stops until the player is okay or is taken off the field. Usually, there's applause as a sign of respect after the player leaves the field.

Hit by a Bat

After a player hits a pitch, his first priority is to get to first base. Sometimes, absent-minded players let go of their bats just after they hit, and baseball bats have been known to go into the stands, or at their fellow players. Bats have injured many baseball fans and players over the years, and it is one of the more painful ways to be injured in the game.

Occasionally, the men behind the batter, the umpire and catcher are hit by the bat when the hitter swings too hard and when the catcher or umpire does something stupid. These accidents are rare though, and the catcher and umpire are padded and well protected, preventing much injury. In fact, the only chink in a catcher's armour is that he often has to put his face mask up to get a better view - and could be hit if he quickly reacted to a pop-up by putting his mask up and is hit in the head by a heavy swing. However, you could hurt an umpire with a wild pitch to his body fairly easily though.

Hit by a Ball

There are lots of ways in which you can accidentally get hit by a ball during gameplay. You can be accidentally hit by a wild pitch, fail to catch a ball thrown towards you, catch it in a way that hurts your hand, or get hurt by a hit. In this way many distracted outfielders, surprised pitchers and rather unfortunate fans have been hurt.

If a ball is hit in the infield, there's a chance it could hit the pitcher before he has the chance to react by putting his glove up or dodging.

Colliding with Another Fielder

Sometimes, a ball is hit high enough into territory that is in between the territory of two fielders. When this happens, the one who gets there first usually calls it as being his, and the other stands at a respectful distance to back him up.

Sometimes there is a breakdown of communication. In this situation, it is not uncommon for two fielders to both try to get the catch, resulting in a collision. This is generally one of the most comical of baseball injuries (though it's not very funny to the fans of the players that just screwed up a catch they should have had). The humour of the moment can also be diminished if a player is seriously injured. Depending on how they hit each other, they can be very seriously injured or barely hurt at all.

Obscure Ones

In 1862, a 21-year-old player called James Creighton, Jr swung at a pitch. His bladder ruptured and he died shortly after. He was the first recorded fatality of the game.

At least one person in baseball's history was struck by lightning during a game. In 1951, at a minor-league Louisiana game, a player called Andy Strong died from this.

In the Line of Duty

The following sorts of injuries are different from accidents in that the causes of them are often the sorts of things that win games. These sorts of injuries are also the sort that the player risked simply by signing up for the job.

Due of the nature of the game, it is occasionally necessary for players to perform an action for the team knowing that they will be less able to repeat it after having completed it. In the history of baseball, thousands of plays have been made by team members who sacrificed themselves. The team realises that there are high stakes attached to games, and any hesitation or hint of selfishness will hurt his reputation. The fans know the other team will expect this of their players! The notable exception to this rule is in pitching - injuries are all too easy to gain and too difficult to get rid of for a pitcher.

Going for the Catch

Imagine. You've been in right field for an entire game without any action, and suddenly a ball comes towards you. Ach! It's just out of reach! If you make the catch, your statistics will be better, your fans will cheer, your team might just win the game...only good things can come from that. However, if you miss the catch, you might be scored with an error, your fans would collectively say 'Awww!', at the same time opposing fans will cheer...only bad things can come from that.

So you make a dive for it and break a bone. You try to snatch the ball from the air before it's a home run and you run smack into a wall. As you can see, the dedication to make a catch can sometimes injure a player. Occasionally, a catch and injury accompany each other, but usually it just hurts.

Hit by a Pitch - The Beanball

One of the cruellest, hardest practices of pitchers is the beanball - which means to purposely hit a player (allowing him or a designated runner to advance to first base) to take him out of the line-up.

This can result in painful injuries and even in some cases death. Of course, as helmets have become more protective, and rules have become harsher against beanballs, the numbers of these incidents have reduced.

Pitching Injuries

Next time you have a baseball (or tennis ball, any smallish ball will do) try throwing it into a small taped-off area 100 times. It will begin to hurt even the strongest and most highly practised of arms. You might be able to get through that day's round of pitching, but try doing it the next day - you won't be able to deliver it with any strong degree of accuracy, before your arm falls off (or feels like it will).

Such is the life of a pitcher. Even the greatest pitchers cannot be used every day, as they risk injuring their pitching arm and making themselves useless to their team. The motion of throwing a ball that most pitchers use does tend to slowly hurt the arm, so many pitchers (even the greats - perhaps especially the greats) fall victim to injuring themselves through overuse of muscles in the elbow and wrist: the powerful motion that is required of the arm to throw a ball fast can be very damaging to both.

Being Slid Into

When you want to be safe at a base, you want it bad. Sometimes bad enough to slide into the man who would prefer to tag you out. This was a tactic sometimes employed by Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers.

Since the shoes of baseball players have cleats on the bottom, when the runner's feet come straight at a baseman, it will hurt. Unlike most baseball injuries, this can cause bloodshed - it's not a gradual thing.

Sprains and Pulls

Baseball is an athletic sport, though it's not aerobic. In many ways it is like watching paint dry interspersed by high-speed car chases. During those high-speed car chase moments, every bit of practice counts. When a runner is trying to steal second base, he is drawing on every bit of practice he's ever had and is exerting himself as completely as possible.

So in these moments of movement, it is possible to overexert yourself, resulting in the pulling or spraining of body parts. Tendons and ankles are notorious for disabling baseball players.

Stupidity

The game of baseball inspires great passion and provokes strong responses from people when injustice or slander is done to their team. A (long) documentary could easily be pieced together about fans and players reacting too quickly to the actions of other fans and players. Imagine a soft, drawling piece of music playing in the background as a team of players run out of their respective dugouts (all in slow motion, mind you) and beat each other to a pulp, from the dead-ball era with their cloth helmets, to the time of Babe Ruth¹, to the era of the Great New York rivalry straight through to the modern era. A companion documentary could be made of fans overreacting.

Truly, the game of baseball has inspired some great acts of stupidity over the years that have resulted in broken bones, fractures and just about any injury one man can lay upon another human being - from biting to flipping another person with his head to the ground².

Rivalries

Nothing fans a fan's love of the game more than a good rivalry. The two most famous rivalries in Major League history are between the Red Sox and Yankees, and the Dodgers and the Giants³. The more violent of the rivalries off the field was that between the Dodgers and Giants. As their hometowns were perilously close, the region was sharply divided. People died over which team had better pitchers during the height of the rivalry. There were brawls in the stadiums over the teams fairly regularly.

Bench-Clearing Brawls

The history of the game is interspersed with these sorts of bench-clearing brawls between players, especially between rival teams. Whenever a beanball is thrown (see above) there's a chance of a brawl. These can result in stiff penalties and hard injuries. Perhaps worse for the participants, there is almost never an actual 'winner' of the fight, because it's broken up before anyone is seriously hurt.

These are called 'Bench-Clearing Brawls' because of a chain reaction that a fight between players on the baseball diamond has. Seeing a team-mate getting hit usually causes the entire team - coaches, pitchers, hitters, and managers in many cases, to clear out of the dugout and try to help their friend. While the entire team is out on the field fighting with the other team, the bench is nice and clear.

Umpire Injuries

That ruggafruggin', muverhubbering umpire...we gonna let him get away with that?

Or so think some people. An umpire sometimes has to make hundreds of calls each game, and a good dozen or so of them will be contentious. Sometimes a fan of a team will interpret the placement of the ball to be in or outside of the strike zone when the umpire disagrees. Sometimes, he'll see a player reaching base before the ball reaches the fielder's glove, when the fan just knows that the person was out.

The fans of the game do sometimes recognise a bad call, or a very close one, and since the stakes are very high in their eyes, they react badly on occasion. It could be a 20-0 game, but a bad call will still not escape the boos of some members of the crowd. Usually, the fans whose team benefits from the call just sit back with very smug looks on their faces - the sort of looks that end friendships.

The abuse of umpires for their calls is fairly common, which the chant 'Kill the ump!' being used in extreme cases when his calls do seem to indicate a bias. Once in a while, history shows rocks or beverages being thrown at the umpire, but the most serious injuries are inflicted upon the rare, thin-skinned, sensitive umpire. When his feelings are hurt, he might prefer a set of cleats to the forehead.