J.T. Realmuto’s neighbor hit in the face by José Alvarado’s second home run ball in Phillies win
Said Realmuto: "That's Stacy! I go fishing with her husband!" He sees her blackened eye. Winces. "I shoulda called a slider."
CLEARWATER, Fla. — All Stacy Durbin wanted was a plate of hot chicken.
What she got was a home run ball in the face.
Durbin, of Clearwater Beach, Fla., was walking on the exposed concourse beyond the left-field fence Thursday afternoon at BayCare Ballpark in the top of the fifth inning of the Phillies-Rays spring training game, in search of Abe’s Place. Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, a baseball plummeted from the sky and nailed her directly on her right eye socket.
Her sunglasses fell off and broke as they landed on the concrete. She staggered to one knee. Her hand flew to her face, where a purple bruise was already starting to form. She felt above her eyebrow and came away with blood from a small cut where the rough, spinning laces must have hit. She felt another small cut on the bridge of her nose where the nose pad of the sunglasses broke skin.
Durbin said she was there to watch her spring-training neighbor, Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto. Their acquaintanceship was confirmed when, after the game, Realmuto was shown a photo of Durbin.
“That’s Stacy!” Realmuto said. “I go fishing with her husband!”
Realmuto actually caught his first hogfish with Mark Durbin. Hogfish is considered the filet mignon of the sea, but Stacy Durbin looked like she could’ve used a rib-eye for that black eye.
Realmuto winced as he looked at the photo again. The hitter was Rays minor-league outfielder Alfonzo Martinez. The pitch? A 98 mph fastball from José Alvarado.
“Huh,” Realmuto said, “guess I shoulda called a slider.”
In the shock of the moment, Durbin’s mind was not its clearest. She didn’t want ice right away. In fact, if she hadn’t been hit right in front of the first-aid tent, she said, she might not have even bothered to have the injury examined.
Her first thought:
“I have a wedding to go to in a week!”
Her second thought:
“Where’s the ball?”
The ball had rolled a few feet away, where 10-year-old Noah Rovine, on vacation from West Chester, picked it up and considered walking away. By then a crowd had gathered, and they convinced Sam to give the ball to Stacy.
“Yeah … there was a lot of pressure,” said Sam Rovine, Noah’s dad.
Fans are much more likely to get beaned by foul balls, which is why over the past few years baseball has expanded netting from just behind the plate to almost all of foul territory. Fans still get hit, though: A Phillies fan was hit on June 10 last season by a rare Max Kepler home run.
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Generally, though, home run balls get caught. But then, generally, fans in home run territory are paying attention.
Alvarado is entering his 15th season as a professional. He has given up more than 50 home runs as a pro, and a dozen or so more in spring training games — the assault missile in question was the second homer he gave up in that inning. And, while he’s seen plenty of fans hit by foul balls, he’s never been a part of anybody going down like this on a home run pitch he’d thrown.
“I’m sorry for that lady. Hopefully, she’s good,” Alvarado said. “But fans — fans need to be careful and watch the game.”
Rest assured, Durbin will be on the lookout from now on. The game was broadcast on television, and the incident will be preserved for posterity.
As passerby slowed down to take a look at the woman with the ice pack on her face, Durbin’s embarrassment grew with every glance.
“Oh my god. Did I fall?” she asked a friend standing nearby. “I am mortified. Just get me out of here.”
Stacy isn’t usually so shy, Mark said.
“She’s always, like, ‘It’s not really a game unless you make the Jumbotron,’ ” Mark said as he moved his index finger back and forth in front of Stacy’s eyes to see if she could track it. “Well, I’ll bet you you’re on it!”
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Just then, there was a loud crack of a bat and the voices in the crowd at BayCare began to rise again. Durbin took the ice bag off her eye and looked to the sky. Sure enough, another white missile was headed her way.
“Oh, [expletive]. Another ball?!” she said. “I swear, if I get hit with another g-damned ball today … ”
She needn’t have worried. This one sailed harmlessly out of the park and into the pond beyond.
“OK,” she said. “Anyway, where in the hell is that hot chicken I got hit in the face for?”
Nobody knew. (It’s behind home plate)
A few minutes later, a little dizzy, with an ache growing in her sinuses — “I feel pressure behind my whole nose” — Durbin reluctantly was transported to a local emergency room.
Never did get that plate of hot chicken.