W
Willy_Mays-Hays
Guest
After much thought and prayer, I am not able to decide what to do about my situation.
In college, I played baseball on scholarship as an outfielder, and was “red-shirted” my Freshman year. This allowed me to take a boatload of classes, and by the time I reached year 4 of college, I was ready to graduate. However, according to NCAA rules, I was still considered a Junior and had one year of elegibility left, so I graduated, and for my 5th and final year I went ahead and finished my minor as a second degree so I could still play Baseball.
After graduation of the 2nd degree in the spring of the 5th year, my college baseball team was playing in the conference tournament in June.
The catcher of the other team was a loud obnoxious guy, constantly talking trash, and we actually saw him signal to his pitcher to intentionally hit one of our batters. The next time I batted, I got to second base, and the following batter hit a single to the outfield, so I made a dash for home plate.
now the NCAA has a “slide or veer” rule where you can’t hit the catcher like a football player, which you CAN do in the Major Leauges. I chose to ignore that rule, and wanted to teach him a lesson. The catcher was about to catch the ball at home plate, and I hit him full force like a defensive back, completely blindsided.
He was knocked completely unconscious, and I fractured 4 of his ribs, one of which puntured his lung, as well as 2 of his vertebrae. I was thrown out of the game, and kicked off the team too.
The catcher spent about 15 weeks in the hospital and rehab, but come to find out, the doctors missed clotting at the puncture site, and about 2 weeks ago he went into cardiac arrest. The medical examiner determined a clot broke loose and he died of an embolism. One of my old teammates emailed me a link to his obituary and a article detailing his death.
I realize that hitting him like that wasn’t right, but at the moment it seemed like good and fair payback for having his pitcher throw a ball into the head of our batter. I never intended for him to die. I shouldn’t have done it at all.
The district attorney for the state wanted to file charges against me, but because athletic competitions during actual play of the game are exempted from state laws concerning bodily injury and assault, they couldn’t prosecute.
But I keep wondering if it is the doctor’s faults more than mine. Aren’t the they the ones that missed such a bad condition? I don’t know who is really ultimately responsible, and I don’t know what I should do.
I can’t serve jail time for what I did, so what other options are there? Normally, the NCAA imposes penalities of requiring the institution of the athlete to remove them from competition, AND sometimes prevent them from graduating or recieving a degree until the NCAA decides reparations are made.
However, I had already recieved both of my degrees, so the only thing they could do was prohibit me from ever attending another NCAA event. I didn’t recieve much civil penalty either.
I honestly don’t know what to do. Before I knew he died, I just realized that I made a bad choice. Now I realize that I probably am culpable in his death. How do I make amends with God? And is there any way to make up for what I did?
In college, I played baseball on scholarship as an outfielder, and was “red-shirted” my Freshman year. This allowed me to take a boatload of classes, and by the time I reached year 4 of college, I was ready to graduate. However, according to NCAA rules, I was still considered a Junior and had one year of elegibility left, so I graduated, and for my 5th and final year I went ahead and finished my minor as a second degree so I could still play Baseball.
After graduation of the 2nd degree in the spring of the 5th year, my college baseball team was playing in the conference tournament in June.
The catcher of the other team was a loud obnoxious guy, constantly talking trash, and we actually saw him signal to his pitcher to intentionally hit one of our batters. The next time I batted, I got to second base, and the following batter hit a single to the outfield, so I made a dash for home plate.
now the NCAA has a “slide or veer” rule where you can’t hit the catcher like a football player, which you CAN do in the Major Leauges. I chose to ignore that rule, and wanted to teach him a lesson. The catcher was about to catch the ball at home plate, and I hit him full force like a defensive back, completely blindsided.
He was knocked completely unconscious, and I fractured 4 of his ribs, one of which puntured his lung, as well as 2 of his vertebrae. I was thrown out of the game, and kicked off the team too.
The catcher spent about 15 weeks in the hospital and rehab, but come to find out, the doctors missed clotting at the puncture site, and about 2 weeks ago he went into cardiac arrest. The medical examiner determined a clot broke loose and he died of an embolism. One of my old teammates emailed me a link to his obituary and a article detailing his death.
I realize that hitting him like that wasn’t right, but at the moment it seemed like good and fair payback for having his pitcher throw a ball into the head of our batter. I never intended for him to die. I shouldn’t have done it at all.
The district attorney for the state wanted to file charges against me, but because athletic competitions during actual play of the game are exempted from state laws concerning bodily injury and assault, they couldn’t prosecute.
But I keep wondering if it is the doctor’s faults more than mine. Aren’t the they the ones that missed such a bad condition? I don’t know who is really ultimately responsible, and I don’t know what I should do.
I can’t serve jail time for what I did, so what other options are there? Normally, the NCAA imposes penalities of requiring the institution of the athlete to remove them from competition, AND sometimes prevent them from graduating or recieving a degree until the NCAA decides reparations are made.
However, I had already recieved both of my degrees, so the only thing they could do was prohibit me from ever attending another NCAA event. I didn’t recieve much civil penalty either.
I honestly don’t know what to do. Before I knew he died, I just realized that I made a bad choice. Now I realize that I probably am culpable in his death. How do I make amends with God? And is there any way to make up for what I did?
