Apr 16, 2025, 03:47 PM ET
MINNEAPOLIS — Veteran umpire Hunter Wendelstedt went to a health facility for additional exam on Wednesday after he was once struck within the face at the back of first base through a line-drive foul ball.
Wendelstedt in an instant fell to the bottom after he took an immediate hit from the road wreck off the bat of New York Mets heart fielder Tyrone Taylor within the 7th inning. Each Taylor and Minnesota Twins right-hander Louis Varland winced right away after seeing the place the ball hit Wendelstedt, who’s in his twenty eighth main league season as an umpire.
Workforce leader Todd Tichenor advised a pool reporter after the sport that Wendelstedt was once coherent and talking however going thru a concussion protocol.
“Optimistically, it is just a few stitches, is what I am pondering,” Tichenor mentioned.
Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt leaves the Mets-Twins sport in Minnesota on Wednesday after being hit through a nasty ball all through the 7th inning. AP Photograph/Abbie Parr
The 53-year-old Wendelstedt was once down for a minute whilst being tended to through Twins clinical team of workers then was once ready to slowly stroll off on his personal, urgent a towel towards the left facet of his head.
2nd-base umpire Adam Hamari moved to first at the three-man workforce for the rest of the sport.
Primary League Baseball mentioned Wendelstedt was once present process further assessments.
“We’re inspired that he was once in excellent spirits when he was once in contact with our clinical team of workers,” MLB mentioned. “We can proceed to watch his standing.”
The incident spooked the ones at the box, without reference to which uniform they had been dressed in.
“It made us all forestall and suppose,” Tichenor mentioned. “That hit him cast within the head. It was once frightening.”
As Twins first baseman Ty France mentioned, “It came about so speedy. Simply praying for a fast restoration for him since you by no means need to see one thing like that occur.”
Twins supervisor Rocco Baldelli additionally expressed his worry.
“I want to want him the most productive and say we are all serious about him,” Baldelli mentioned. “I used to be happy to look him stroll off the sphere underneath his personal energy. That was once higher than the opposite. We are hoping he is OK.”
Primary League Baseball has required base coaches to put on helmets since 2008, the yr after the demise of Mike Coolbaugh, who was once killed after being struck within the neck through a line pressure whilst training first base in a minor league sport for a Texas Rangers associate.
Tichenor mentioned he did not suppose umpires had to get started dressed in helmets.
“This one was once simply 100 mph off the bat,” Tichenor mentioned. “We are taught to move reverse the ball. He simply went into the ball. It occurs. All of us do it. It simply does not hit him within the head in most cases.”
