Video: Woman Takes Foul Ball to the Face, I Laugh

I tried. I really did. I tried my best not to laugh. I told myself, “No, that’s not funny.” But it’s totally funny. I laughed. And then I watched it again. And again. And another time after that. I mean, it’s only 10 seconds long. And I laughed some more.

I even e-mailed the video to a friend of mine. I wanted to gauge her reaction, you know, as someone without the average Canadian male’s sense of humor. Her response:

Watched it 4 times. hahahahahaha

All I needed was the “hahahahahaha.” Validation. She was judge and jury, and the verdict was in: Funny.

I wasn’t all about the hilarity, though. Much like Eric Chavez on that fateful night in Baltimore last week, I wanted to find out if that poor woman was, in fact, alright. So I traveled the Internet, came up with nothing, and have reasoned that since I didn’t find any news on Foul Ball Lady’s well-being, she’s fine. No news is good news.

Back to the video. It is awesome. And I sincerely don’t mean to be an insensitive Canadian prick about it. Certainly the ball hurt. Of that there’s no doubt. I’ve taken a foul ball off my hand, and the last thing I’d want is to take a foul ball off the side of my head. I’m just thankful Foul Ball Lady didn’t lose an eye. But, I mean, come on, it’s funny. Mostly because it’s in slow motion. You can actually see Foul Ball Lady’s hair get tousled by the impact of the ball! The sad part: She was paying attention. Hands in the air, she was alert. And then: A deflection. A goddamned deflection. Deflections are the worst.

I just watched it again. I didn’t laugh, but I smiled. What can I say, the video makes me happy.

A couple more observations, along with two of my hopes:

— I love the reaction, or lack thereof, of the lady in baby blue two rows behind Foul Ball Lady. I’d wager that Baby Blue has been, or knows someone who has been, hit by a foul ball before. Calm, cool and collected, she wasn’t even looking in the direction of the ball. She wanted no part of that action.

— About the guy who deflected the baseball into Foul Ball Lady’s poor, unsuspecting face: Screw him. Why? Because it was a foul pop-up, third base side, and that dude had all day to casually set his sunglasses camera down, on the ground or in a cup holder, and use both hands to try and make the grab. Typical Yankees bravado. Disgusting.

— I’ve assumed, hoped, and decided that Foul Ball Lady, surrounded by Yankees faithful, is not a Baltimore Orioles fan. Her luck’s clearly bad enough as it is.

— One day, the stigma of bringing one’s baseball glove to the ballpark, regardless of age, gender, and caste, will no longer exist, and ill-fated women and children won’t get hit in the face by deflected foul balls. Dare to dream, friends.

I’m not too sure how the hell I stumbled upon that video. Somewhere on Tumblr, I think. Yeah, let’s go with Tumblr. Thank you, Tumblr, and those brave Tumblring souls who use “baseball” when tagging their posts.