It wasn’t exactly the best of nights for the home team, but it definitely was a lucky one for one of the reporters in attendance.
In arguably the best highlight from an otherwise dreary game for Yankees fans in the Bronx — in which the Atlanta Braves trounced the slumping Yankees — a cameraman saved a reporter from being hit by a hard foul ball.
The highlight came on what was, sadly, one of the hardest-hit balls of the night for the Yankees, who fell 8-1 to the Braves at Yankee Stadium.
The viral clip — which had drawn more than 125k “likes” by Saturday morning on ESPN SportCenter’s Instagram account — began with the Yankees’ Oswaldo Cabrera pulling a pitch from Braves’ starter Chris Sale to the third base side.
It took an errant bounce toward a reporter sitting in the press area, who shielded herself with a notebook.
Trending:
However, a barehanded catch by the cameraman saved the day:
What a save, indeed.
Do you watch baseball?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
Unfortunately, not injuring a reporter was pretty much as good as things got for the Yankees — who still lead the American League East with a 51-27 record, but have lost five of six and given up 32 runs.
The Yankees also tied a pre-Pearl Harbor record on Friday, and not one to be proud of: The team gave up runs in 13 out of 14 innings, something that the Bronx Bombers haven’t done since June 16-18, 1940, the AP reported.
“Nobody says it’s going to be easy to go through the whole year. Nobody says it’s going to be flowers, roll all the way to the World Series,” Yankees star Juan Soto said, according to the AP.
“We got to take it like a man and forget about it and just keep moving forward.”
However, it could have been a lot worse — particularly if the cameraman hadn’t been the player of the night.
Just to make clear how damaging a foul ball can be if hit hard enough, consider the case of Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly, who was covering a Philadelphia Phillies-Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards just a few days ago.
Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos hit a foul into the press box at the Baltimore stadium — and Kelly’s laptop took the L.
A Nick Castellanos foul ball into the press box just broke my laptop 😬😬 pic.twitter.com/y2CXKzjrN1
— Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) June 15, 2024
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is just a laptop. As you can see from the clip, the ball hit by Cabrera was heading straight to the reporter’s head. Also, while notebooks may indeed be strong, they don’t offer the same kind of protection that a laptop would.
On the other hand, they don’t offer the same sort of protection that a cameraman with quick reflexes does, either.
Our hats are off to you, sir.
