It was must-see baseball last night in the Texas League, as the Corpus Christi Hooks (Astros AA affiliate) took on the Midland RockHounds (Athletics AA affiliate). With the Hooks up 9-0 in the bottom of the fifth, Astros 2009 third-round pick Telvin Nash stepped to the plate facing RockHounds pitcher Blake Hassebrock. Hassebrock hit Nash in the head with the first pitch.Nash didn't retaliate. He calmly walked to first. But as Hassebrock was getting ready to face the next better, a 35-year-old drunk (according to the police) fan ran onto the field to confront Hassebrock. The entire dugout and bullpen came running out to defend the pitcher. One player body-slammed him to the ground. It's quite the spectacle.
Advertisement
Here's Hassebrock's take:"I saw (the fan) out of the corner of my eye and I honestly thought it was someone from their dugout, like a trainer, going to see Nash. Then I realized when he was halfway between the (foul) line and the mound, that he was a fan. My first thought was I just hoped he didn't have a gun or something weird. If he's crazy enough to be on the field, who knows what he had on him. By the time he got to me, he stopped and it looked like he came to and regretted being out there in the first place. We didn't (make contact)."This was like something out of Eastbound and Down or a deleted scene in Bull Durham. According to MILB.com, the fan had been "bellowing" from the stands the previous inning. "What he said was pretty much inaudible, drunken gibberish," Hassebrock continued. "(There was) a couple of f-bombs and some slurring. I'm pretty sure he was upset I hit Nash."In the video, it's both fascinating and scary to see the lack of security. Corpus hitting coach Tim Garland would be the one to escort the fan off the field, not the police.The fan was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and criminal trespass at a sporting event.h/t CBS