HOUSTON -- Dickie Thon watched the replays of Braves outfielder Jason Heyward getting hit in the face by a pitch Wednesday night and immediately had memories of April 8, 1984. "I learned to play the best I could and forget about what I could have done, because in the beginning, I was a much better hitter before I got hit.

CS–Strawberry (1,2nd base by Niekro/Ashby); Puhl (1,2nd base by Torrez/Ortiz). He appeared in five games and had five hits. “Sometimes it’s hard to overcome the fear of being hurt,” Thon said. Fact-checking the first Trump-Biden presidential debate. Last fall, when they tested his vision again, it measured 20-40. IBB–Hernandez (1,by Ruhle). The aftermath of a beaning: It was a late afternoon in April, 1983, and Dodger Stadium was wrapped in shadows. By April 1, the Astros must decide whether to renew Thon’s contract at his present salary of $675,000. All indications are that the Astros will renew, even if he isn’t ready at the beginning of the season. One of the things Thon said he learned is you can't lean out over the plate expecting a pitch on the outside corner.

He goes out there and doesn’t care who’s pitching.

Astros Shortstop Dickie Thon Was Hit By A Pitch That Changed His Career By Jay RodriguezFeb 27, 2020 There's been lots of talk about the Astros players being hit by pitches this season.

“Dickie’s injury is unprecedented, because of the way the helmet was driven into his face. “I hope they do, because that’s his strength,” Menke said. Houston's best variety of the '80s, '90s and today. “I didn’t enjoy the game the same way,” he said in 2015. “I’ll never quit. “I just hope Dickie comes back,” Marshall said the other day in the clubhouse at Dodgertown, the Dodgers’ spring training facility in Vero Beach. Ever.


The rising fastball from Mets pitcher Mike Torrez sailed up and in, striking him flush in the face in the left-eye region. “I’m sorry if I sounded mean.”. I know I can do it. Thon, an up-and-coming shortstop with the Astros who had made the All-Star team in 1983, was struck by a Mike Torrez fastball in his left eye and was never quite the same on the baseball field.

The L.A. Times’ endorsements in the November 2020 election. his head directly in its path, his body transfixed, the terror rising in his throat. Here are the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board endorsements for president, California ballot measures and more. “The next day it rained,” he said.

Dickie Thon’s attempt at a comeback began in the Arizona Instructional League last fall. Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS). Thon returned home to Puerto Rico, where he had grown up, but quit after just three games. It was a fastball from Mike Torrez of the Mets that nailed a frozen Dickie Thon of the Astros in the face at the Astrodome in a night game on April 8, 1984. In 1984 one pitched changed the course of Dickie's career and life. He was not injured, but he didn’t start hitting, either, until July.

It's tough to do that in the big leagues, but I did manage to play 10 [more] years.". Listen live to Dana and Jay in the Morning!

Doctors say it won’t get any better. He was hit by a pitch only nine times in 4,871 career plate appearances. Dickie Thon was off to an impressive young Major League Baseball career when it all came crashing down in 1984, at the age of 26.

But having to deal with the psychological and not knowing whether you can see, that takes a brave man. I can honestly say there was no time I was in the batter’s box that I thought to myself, ‘Get ready to duck,’ or ‘What if it comes inside?’. Within two years of the injury, the book was closed on Dickie Thon as a potential superstar; he moved on from Houston after the 1987 season. “It was a freak accident. But there are more important things.”. Thon, who came to Houston from the Angels in a trade for Ken Forsch on April Fool’s Day, 1981, hit 20 home runs in 1983, led the league with 18 game-winning hits, drove in 79 runs and batted .286. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to begin allowing schools to apply for waivers to open campuses to students in grades TK-2. HOUSTON -- Dickie Thon watched the replays of Braves outfielder Jason Heyward getting hit in the face by a pitch Wednesday night and immediately had memories of April 8, 1984.. That's the day Thon's baseball career and life changed forever.

But race-car drivers are crazy, someone said. But here, in Kissimmee, nothing matters more than the game. Here’s the box score from the game that changed everything for Dickie Thon: E–Backman (1). In his first intrasquad game here, Thon had two hits.

But whatever it was that spared him in his sleep, whether impulse or instinct or simply fear, deserted Dickie Thon on an April night last season in the Houston Astrodome. He returned in 1985, but suffered from problems with depth perception that permanently hampered his potential. It's all about positivism and something good. Blog at WordPress.com.

“It affected his visual acuity--his ability to read letters--and his depth perception,” Bryan said. Inside. It was a fastball from Mike Torrez of the Mets that nailed a frozen Dickie Thon of the Astros in the face at the Astrodome in a night game on April 8, 1984. Make social videos in an instant: use custom templates to tell the right story for your business. That comes out to about 25,000 swings a year. But as team doctor, Bryan has come to know Thon well.

He appeared in five games and had five hits.

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. In 1991, Thon received the Tony Conigliaro Award in recognition of his recovery from this severe injury. That’s why it’s so difficult for us to say whether he’ll return. “It amazes me when a race-car driver hits a wall and gets back in there.”. The pitch broke the orbital bone around his left eye and ended his 1984 season. “A guy in Puerto Rico was all over her. That’s all the time he has to determine whether a pitch is a fastball, slider or curve. A–10,625. No one ever has suggested that he hit Thon deliberately.

“Some people probably think we’re crazy, too,” Marshall said.

"When I was younger, I used to try to cover both sides of the plate, and really, the outside part of the plate, it's tough to get," he said. It was a fastball from Mike Torrez of the Mets that nailed a frozen Dickie Thon of the Astros in the face at the Astrodome in a night game on April 8, 1984. "When I got hit, I was a .280 hitter, and I went down to .240-something, .250, .260," he said. “Counting batting practice, games, extra-batting practice, I figure I take 100 swings a day.

The moonlight confessions of Stevie Nicks. “Sure you think about it, but it’s like a race-car driver hitting a wall or a boxer getting knocked out and going on. He didn’t go to the hospital, but he said his head swelled. And in the batting cage, he had Denis Menke pitch to him--and asked Menke to throw inside.

To this day that is all people remember or talk about when it comes to Dickie Thon, but there is more to this incredible baseball player and man. “I ran out on the field and it looked bad,” he said. Thon, 55, remains active in baseball and owns a Puerto Rican Winter League team in Santurce. It’s something you’ve prepared for for your whole life. Sometimes you're going to get hit, but you don't want to get hit in the head.". On the Astros’ radar gun, which is said to run a little high, Torrez’s fastball was clocked at 92 m.p.h. Plus.

“He (Torrez) called me,” Thon said. “For me, it pops into your mind, but when I stepped into the batter’s box I forgot about it.

TM + © 2020 Vimeo, Inc. All rights reserved. This short film skims the surface of the story about a kid from Puerto Rico who chased a dream and fought back after an injury to prove he was still one the best. Get your team aligned with all the tools you need on one secure, reliable video platform.

There were two outs in the ninth inning of a game long since decided when Mike Marshall of the Dodgers was struck in the head by a fastball thrown by Expos’ reliever Jeff Reardon. His brother, Alan, was a minor league first baseman--until the day he was beaned in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. A half-season later, he was released and never played baseball again. The sickening sound of ball striking bone reverberated through the Astrodome as Thon dropped lifelessly to the ground. If they don’t, he will be paid only for spring training.
Life, unfortunately, is often a matter of nanoseconds and percentage inches that make the difference between agony and ecstasy – and the ones that break bad are too hard to heal and too slow to forget. Thon was asked what advice he would give Heyward and Stassi.

Greatness was not to be for Dickie Thon. . A Torrez fastball broke the orbital bone around his left eye and ended his 1984 season only five games in. 555 N. Central Ave. #416 “But you can’t worry about it, it’s part of life.”. It was a pitch that turned the tables on his predicted Hall of Fame future. The injuries to Heyward, who suffered a fractured jaw, and Astros rookie Max Stassi, who was hit in the face by a pitch in his second game in the Major Leagues later that night, are part of the game, Thon said. That's a fine line that you have to have that ability. I’m doing everything I can to play again. President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off in Cleveland in their first presidential debate. T–2:37.

And I’ve been hit once in the head. I’m happy to be alive. When two reporters here approached his wife, Sol, who was watching Thon during a base-running workout, he yelled: “Get away from my wife. DP–Houston 2. Positions: Shortstop, Second Baseman and Third Baseman Bats: Right • Throws: Right 5-11, 160lb (180cm, 72kg) Born: June 20, 1958 in South Bend, IN us. There’s no doubt, Menke said, that if Thon makes it back, that’s the way opposing pitchers will work him, too. Dickie Thon was starting to turn into a very solid player of the Houston Astros by the 1984 season. “But you don’t practice moving your head,” Marshall said. In his sleep, Dickie Thon actually felt himself move out of harm’s way. "One of the things is to be able to be a good hitter, you cannot shy away," he said. IBB–Ruhle (1,Hernandez). “My timing is bad,” he said.

That’s such a thing to come back from and coming back from an injury makes it doubly tough.

In 1983, Thon was an All-Star, the National League’s answer to Robin Yount or Cal Ripken Jr., a shortstop who could field, hit and hit with power.

Right-handed hitting Dickie Thon of the Astros didn’t move from his stance at the plate. But the past is there. SB–Puhl (1,2nd base off Torrez/Ortiz). “I couldn’t read, I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t see nothing.”. Alan Menke now owns a bar, the Red Barn, in Bancroft, Iowa, a small town about 100 miles south of Minneapolis. They have to deal with it.".

“But it’d be tragic if he doesn’t come back to his greatness.”. Dickie Thon. “And I remember being glad that it did. I can’t recall how much time then passed before we got the word that he had survived, for the moment, but no one took anything for granted. One ball comes to your head, and your head doesn’t move. He doesn’t remember the name of the pitcher who hit him, but he remembers the lights being bad.

His best hit of the spring so far was against Toronto, a double to the base of the wall in left, 330-feet away, off Toronto’s Roy Lee Jackson. It was the most shocking and sickening moment that some of us will ever likely have again at any ballpark, anywhere.