Masahiro Tanaka gave the New York Yankees a terrible scare, but appears to be alright.
New York Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka appeared to start his Summer Camp off in the worst fashion possible.
Shortly after starting his first summer session after returning from Japan, Tanaka was struck in the head by a line drive off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton, who ducked in devastation the very second the baseball left his lumber.
Tanaka was taken to the hospital immediately, and Yankees fans exhaled when he was released a few hours later.
After a terror-filled afternoon for Yankee fans, Tanaka emerged from the ambulance, and wrote his devoted fans a message of positivity, though we’re of course forced to take everything with a grain of salt.
While we were thrilled to hear from the pitcher himself, it’s fair for the staff and management to preach caution, at this point.
Most importantly, Tanaka’s teammates came to his defense, as the circumstances surrounding his hospitalization spread like wildfire. Even though media was by and large disallowed from attending Saturday’s activity, the video of Tanaka’s unfortunate accident was still spread across Twitter, with plenty of fans viewing on YES Network sending it to the masses.
Teammates, like Gleyber Torres and Aaron Judge, rallied against spreading the horrifying video in the wake of the accident, with the disinformation campaign running rampant.
2020 is a season different than any that’s preceded it — players will suddenly disappear from the active roster (like DJ LeMahieu and Luis Cessa, for instance, wink wink), and others will be under more pressure than ever before to show up for all 60 games, with fewer games than ever before on their ledger.
Masahiro Tanaka will be a free agent at the end of the 2020 season, and the NYY were hoping to use him as an inspiration entering this very strange season. Hopefully, his health recovers swiftly, as this speed bump was entirely unanticipated.