@davidwade: Boston Police tell us woman hit by shard of broken bat at Fenway has life threatening injuries.

Because you're making a million assumptions.

Do we even know that she didn't actually attempt to shield herself and/or her son? I haven't read more than a couple of brief eyewitness accounts.

Maybe she was protecting her fucking child and leaving herself exposed.

Or maybe she had her hands up, but as the bat was spinning it was at just the right angle in its rotation to fly through her arms (bats are only a couple of inches wide).

Or maybe, in the 1 second that she had to react she did put up her hands, but remember the bat was flying at a crazy angle with a bizarre rotation (cuz they're heavily weighted towards one end). So she reacted on instinct and threw her hands up and the bat spun over or under or to the side of where her hands were and hit her.

She had, seriously, about 1 second to react.

Also, if it was coming on a direct path towards her (and it would seem that it was), that would make its speed and location difficult to judge. Like how broadcasters talk about how liners directly at an outfielder can be much harder than one where you have to take a few steps, because that's just how binocular vision works. Then replace that baseball with a jagged, heavy bat moving unpredictably.


Or maybe somebody next to her asked her a question and she turned her head for 3 seconds. Or her son spilled soda on his shirt and she was looking in her purse for something to clean it up with.

Like your argument is almost as crazy as arguing that a pitcher should know to get his glove up and protect himself, after some horrendous line drive puts a guy in the hospital for a month or even essentially ends his career.

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