Photos of a baseball fan saving a boy from getting hit in the face by a bat during a spring training game Saturday between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves have gone viral.
The bat slipped out of the hands of Pirates outfielder Danny Ortiz and flew into the stands. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review photographer Christopher Horner captured the image as a fan reached his arm out and deflected the bat from hitting a boy who was looking down at a cell phone.
Ortiz didn’t know what happened until his wife showed him the picture later, exclaiming:
“You almost killed that kid,” the Tribune-Review said.
“I saw the picture. It was crazy,” Ortiz told the newspaper. “That guy took (a blow) for the kid. The father, or whoever he was, he protected that kid.”
Horner posted the photos on Twitter. The post had been retweeted 2,300 times by Monday afternoon.
NPR called the man’s quick reaction the best play of the game, adding that the bat “might have done significant damage to the boy, who seemed to be caught completely off guard as he held a smartphone in his seat in the stands. We'll remind you that in the majors, players use wooden bats that commonly weigh more than 2 pounds.”
Twitter users exclaimed about the close call.
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