Oswalt Nailed by Line Drive, Still Shockingly Alive

Feel like wincing this morning? Then go right ahead and watch the above video of ace Roy Oswalt getting a line drive right to the apricot Wednesday, courtesy of Manny Ramirez. Oswalt takes the ball in the back of the neck and stays down for a considerable amount of time, but then gets back up on his own and looks mildly annoyed that he has to leave the game.

"I remember when I was laying on the ground thinking, 'Did I just get hit in the head?' " Oswalt told the AP. "It surprises you more than it does anything. You don't really know what to do."

The Inquirer confirms that Oswalt suffered no serious injury from the incident:

Oswalt was found to have a neck bruise, while X-rays and a CT scan returned negative. He never lost consciousness and he did not feel dizzy, the team said.

"I'm good," Oswalt said while walking to his car.

See, this is why baseball players are a different species of human from you and I. If it was me out there taking a liner to the spine, you’d have to wait seven hours to get me off the ground. And pitch again? After nearly getting my face blasted off? What are you, nuts?

But Oswalt isn’t like that at all. He just gets up and dusts off that psychological trauma like a freakin’ superhero. I don’t know whether to be in awe of him, or to grab him and shake him and be like, “Don’t you realize you almost DIED, man?! Are you made of stone?!”

Anyway, yeah. Terrifying. I really have no clue how pitchers do it.

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