Heads Up!

We hear about the dangers in school every day on the news. There are gangs and kids with guns. There are bullies, both real and virtual. There was recently some tainted meat.

I learned today of another hazard. I got a call from Downtown Elementary this afternoon telling me that that S, who was on a field trip with her school (as was every other school in the city, it seemed) at a Memphis Redbirds baseball game, had been struck by a foul ball. A zinger right down the first base line.

"Can you go up there and see her?" I was asked.

Can I go see her? I've got to see this, I thought. I mean, S's head isn't much bigger than a baseball.

When I got there, her teacher, Mrs. Porter, and the school's principal, Mrs. Wunderlich, were both with her in the first aid office. I'm grateful to both of them for taking care of her and staying with her until I could get there.

She's fine, just a big knot on her melon. The good people of the first aid station gave her a Rockey the Redbird stuffed animal and she got to keep the ball.

Of all the dangers in schools these days, I never saw the lead-off batter in the bottom of the 8th coming. And, apparently, neither did S.

[Final score: Memphis 5, Salt Lake 10]