Coincidence? Ouch.

At baseball camp yesterday, week long thing at a local high school, my son Brian (nickname at camp: Fluffmaster Flex, and no I have no idea why) got hit by a sailing fastball. Right in the left arm. Left bloody stitch marks on his tricep. Pretty cool.

Then, final game of regular season last night....first at bat....bases loaded. Brian's up. Kid throws a curve that didn't. (Curve, that is). Brian does as we have often discussed, with the bases loaded, and flinches just enough to make it look good. Hits him right in the tricep. HBP, take your base, RBI. Other team fusses a little, but nothing much.

Next inning, he bats again. First pitch (again), curve that doesn't. He actually tries to get out of the way. Hits him right in the tricep.

Fourth inning, he comes up. Two at-bats, two PITCHES, two HBP. First pitch is a fastball on the inside. He crushes it. Line drive, hits three feet in front of the 335 sign in left on the fly....six inches foul. Hit it plenty hard enough to go out, just foul and a little too much on the nose instead of getting under it. Second pitch of the at-bat....HITS HIM SQUARE ON THE LEFT ARM.


Four pitches, three HBP for the night so far. I'm yelling at the catcher, who is an old family friend, and who at 16 is an inch taller than I am, and very solidly built. "I know where your car is, Carl! I'll meet you in the parkin' lot, boy!" The ump is hiding his face in his chest pad, laughing.

Top of the last inning, we are up by one. Could use some insurance. Men on first and third. Brian comes up. And the pitcher nails him right in the butt with a fastball, first pitch. The ball park goes crazy. The Latino parents behind are screaming and laughing, "Cuatro veces! Cuatro veces!" Brian's coach, coaching third, has his hands on his knees and is obviously shaking with laughter. Carl the catcher yells to me, "I'm not callin' those. I am NOT callin' those!"

We score two runs and shut them down in the bottom of the inning, win the game. Brian has big bruises on his arm and butt cheek, and has been the main character in a night to remember.

His batting line for the night:

AB: 0 H: 0 W: 0 HBP: 4 RBI: 1
SB: 2 R: 2 SO: 0 Total Pitches Faced: 5
Avg: undefined Slg: undefined OBP: 1.000

I've never seen anything like it.

Made me wonder about HBP records. (My older son holds the career record for HBP at his middle school. You get on base. And the pitchers are throwing in the high 50s. Why not?)

The career leaders for the Majors?

Hughie Jennings--287
Craig Biggio--282*
Don Baylor--267

*still active

How about for a single game?

The record is 3 times in a game, record held by many.

How about for a single inning? Four guys have two HBP in an inning.
AL Brady Anderson Baltimore 05-23-1999 1st Inning
NL Willard Schmidt Cincinnati 04-26-1959 3rd Inning
Frank Thomas New York 04-29-1962 4th Inning
Andres Galarraga Colorado 07-12-1996 7th Inning

So, Brian takes his place up there among the immortals. 4 HBP in a one
seven-inning game: Well done, son. Way to take 4 for the team.