Catcher’s Head Hitting Habitual Offender, Fellow Mentally Oblivious “Why do I need to fix my swing?”
No sign of remorse after hitting a catcher in the head with a bat. The ‘victim’, catcher Will Smith (28-LA Dodgers), expressed his frustration to the ‘perpetrator’, Marcell Osuna (33-Atlanta Braves).
Speaking to local media, including The Athletic, Osuna fired back, saying, “Smith made me feel uncomfortable in front of everyone. He told me I needed to fix my swing, but why do I need to fix it? Are you asking me to change my mechanics?” he said.
The incident dates back to the Atlanta-Dodgers game at Truiste Park on April 23. In the fourth inning, Osuna’s bat hit Smith’s helmet on a fly ball in left field. Osuna’s backswing was too big, and it hit Smith in the head.먹튀검증
As soon as he was hit, Smith pulled off his mask and yelled at Osuna, who turned around to run to first base, and the two players confronted each other. It almost led to a bench-clearing, with players from both teams poised to run onto the field, but the situation ended without conflict.
After the game, Smith said, “Osuna hit me hard in the head with the bat. This is not a one-time thing for me. I’ve been hit by other catchers in the league. I thought it was time to say something. I was a little pissed off at the moment I got hit, and I know Osuna didn’t do it on purpose. But when you hit a catcher in the head like that, you have to fix it.”
Smith was also hit by Osuna’s backswing on a grounder to third base in the first inning of a home game against Atlanta at Dodger Stadium on April 19 last year. It was hard not to be angry that he was hit again by the same player a year later.
To add insult to injury, Smith was placed on the disabled list with concussion symptoms after a game against the San Francisco Giants on May 13 and missed 13 games. He suffered concussion-like symptoms after being hit by several foul-tipped balls during a three-game series against San Francisco. He returned and was playing well with no aftereffects until he was hit in the head again. “He’s bound to be sensitive,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
The problem is that Smith wasn’t the only one hit by Osuna’s bat. Sean Murphy, who became Osuna’s teammate in Atlanta this year, was also hit by the former Oakland Athletic’s bat. Yadier Molina, who retired last year, Wilson Contreras (St. Louis Cardinals), J.T. Realmuto (Philadelphia Phillies), and Austin Barnes (Dodgers) are among the other catchers who have been hit in the head by Osuna’s bat. “I don’t think he does it on purpose, but getting hit in the head with a bat is really annoying,” Barnes admitted.
But Osuna has no intention of fixing his swing: “Opposing pitchers will throw me pitches, and catchers will frame them to look like strikes. So what can I do? I’m just going to keep swinging like that,” he said, asking Smith to step back when he comes up and not stick to the batter’s box.
“Catchers like Realmuto and Barnes know how long my backswing is. When I step up to bat, they step back,” Osuna said. In the end, Smith lost. Starting with the 24th game, whenever Osuna came to bat, he would go backwards and avoid the bat. There were no further collisions, but Osuna’s lack of remorse after hitting the catcher in the head on multiple occasions shows a lack of team spirit.