Today we have the second half of my feature on broken bat cards. Enjoy!
1998 Leaf Jose Canseco #109
Something about this one just makes me giggle. I think it is the intense look of "I'm admiring a titanic blast" on his face, meanwhile all he has is a bat stub.
2007 Upper Deck Roger Clemens #339
The second pitcher featured in this series. Looking at the angle that bat barrel is flying off in I hope the photographer was far away!
1998 Donruss Chuck Knoblauch #55
Can't get much more sawed-off than that.
2007 Upper Deck Ramon Martinez #778
Our third entry from 2007 Upper Deck, I guess flying lumber was a real theme that year! This one stands out for how weirdly clean the break is. It looks like somebody literally sawed straight through it.
1998 Pinnacle Rondell White #81
And finally, an especially sharp-looking bit of shrapnel sailing out into the field of play. I've always been amazed that there haven't been more injuries from broken bats over the years, if not from bats sailing into a fielder then from batters got their hands and/or fingers sliced. I did read about one particularly nasty incident in the book "Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s" (a fun read by the way) - in 1976, Dodger Steve Yeager was hit in the throat by a shard of a broken bat while standing in the on-deck circle. He ended up needing surgery on his esophagus, but thankfully he was OK. The incident led Dodger trainer Bill Buhler to invent the neck guard we see hanging from catcher's masks today.
Stay warm out there!!
