How horrible & tragic is this Baseball story? Your thoughts & some of the story inside->?

It's awful. This is one of those freak accidents that words don't describe.

BTW, how do you think that kid who threw that pitch feels right now?

Kind of wish they would have said how hard the pitcher was throwing. It would obviously had to have been pretty hard to stop the kid's heart entirely. I've never heard of anything like this before.

Anyway, that's awful. I feel horrible for the family right now. But I really hope this doesn't scare other kids in the league to quitting baseball, because this is an extremely uncommon occurrence.

EDIT- I also agree with Brian's comment about the physicals before the season starts. As I said earlier, unless the pitcher was throwing extremely hard, this should not have happened without a medical issue being involved.

Chipmaker said it very well. If the impact occurs in the right place and at the right time, it does not have to be fast or hard to cause great damage. A few years ago I knew an umpire who was struck by a pitched ball that hit him in the chest and caused him to experience heart fibrillation. He was taken to the hospital where he survived. The EMTs used the defibrillator on him at the ballpark. He was wearing a chest protector (he was the plate ump), the chest protector was a type that had increased padding in the area of the heart (a type of trauma pad). It is rare, but such impacts do occur. .

The speed of the ball would have mattered little, and this can (and has) happened to perfectly healthy hearts. It is caused by the timing of the impact -- if it hits just right during the heart's pulsing cycle, it interrupts the rhythm catastrophically, and the heart stops (alas, children are more susceptible than adults -- less mass to disperse the impact). Recovery is possible but it requires immediate, knowledgeable care, and usually a defibrillator.

Safety equipment designed to prevent and diffuse chest impacts is available. Even though the odds, based upon the number of Little League (and other juvenile leagues) players, makes this sort of tragedy extremely unlikely, every instance is utterly awful. Little League should consider mandating such safety equipment. And sponsoring more research, since the efficacy of current equipment is considered inadequate.

Here's Wiki with more information, and if you don't trust Wiki, go check WebMD for a variety of articles that reference commotio cordis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis

It is very sad, and I've heard about this before. People can get hurt and killed in a variety of ways in any sport, but I wouldn't want to discourage kids from playing sports, especially baseball, where the chance of this happening is so rare. Maybe it would be worthwhile to have the kids wear some type of chest protector while batting. It would have to be designed in a way to just protect their heart without being too intrusive to interfere with their swing.

I do! My fiance and I were on our first 'real' date after we'd been hanging around each other for a few weeks. We went for dinner, then back to my apartment to see if there was a movie we wanted to go to. We ended up chatting together on my couch for two more hours. Then we swapped glasses to see how strong each others' prescriptions were. He said he had to go because he had to work early the next day. Then he started the 'lean in' thing, and I was SUPER nervous because I really liked him, so I said "Is this the part where you kiss me?" Then we both cracked up laughing so hard that it was another five minutes before we actually DID kiss. After that kiss, I knew he was the man I was going to marry. I've NEVER been kissed like that. To this day, four years later, he still catches me off guard with a kiss that make my stomach dance and my heart pound. We also have an awesome "how we met" story. He is a musician, and I thought he was really cute up on stage playing his sax. I wanted to meet him, but my friend wanted to leave before his break so I wasn't able to talk to him. So I wrote "Sax player - email me" on the back of a business card and put it in his tip jar! And he DID email me!!

Not to insult the kid in any way but he had to have had a medical issue if a baseball killed you. With like the ribs or the other parts that protect the heart. I see kids get drilled in the chest every year. Sometimes to me too. Maybe this is a sign to little league that they should give players physicals before the season so this doesn't happen again

This is sad and very very rare. We shudder to think that fun things can be deadly. But they can as rare as such things are.

At the beginning of the day and end of the day it will be more dangerous to do plenty of normal every day things such as crossing the street, driving or riding in car, swimming in a pool, and taking a shower vs. playing baseball. If we let the threat of death call the shots then we humans would not do much of anything.

I try to find the good in this. This kid was doing something he enjoyed when he died and that is sort of comforting vs. the alternative of dying while doing something you don't care about or are indifferent about.

Wow...I can't think of any word(s) that can describe this situation. It truly is incomprehensible, I just can't comprehend this. It is a complete tragedy for an innocent Little Leaguer to be killed while playing a game. It's just sad, even though the word "sad" isn't even close to describing this.

Wow man... just wow. This kid was just playing some random game of baseball, then he just gets killed to a pitch to the chest. This probability of getting killed from a pitch like that was probably one in two million. Plus, it's not like his heart stopped because of exhaustion. He's just a normal kid, playing baseball, then he gets killed. My condolences go out to him and his family.

Not to be repeat Chipmaker who gave an excellent explanation, I would add that unfortunately it has happened before in baseball, similar situation.

It's an absolute random event where the timing is precise right to the nanosecond.

As to why? who knows, maybe the Angels needed another player. :) For sure, we can rest knowing he's in God's hands - safe, loved and cared for.