Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
In 2009, while with the Mariners, Adrian Beltre, who was not wearing a cup, fielded a ball that took a bad hop directly into his manhood, crushing his right testicle. Amazingly, he stayed in the game and eventually scored the winning run in the 14th inning. He surveyed the damage later in the locker room, and it was not pretty.
"When I look down, after the game, it wasn't a pretty sight," Beltre said. "My testicle got the size of a grapefruit. Thank God it didn't really damage anything. It took me two weeks. It was a tear. A lot of blood inside, but it didn't damage anything. Everything is OK."
After all that, and a stint on the 15-day DL, you'd think that Beltre would have seen the dangers in not wearing a protective cup and changed his ways. But you'd be wrong. Beltre, a third baseman in the majors, still opts for no cup, choosing instead to tempt fate just 90-feet away from the plate.
"I'm going to try it in spring training and see how it goes. I should, but it just doesn't seem comfortable. I tried to wear it before, but I just don't feel right. It just isn't comfortable.'' [...]
"I never wore one again until last year after I got hit. It was the first time I was hit. They say I'm crazy not to wear the cup. But I say, if the ball's going to hit me there every 11 1/2 years, I'll take my chances.''
Beltre's won two Gold Gloves, and the defensive wiz is widely considered to have some of the best hands in baseball, so I trust he knows what he's doing when he decides to take his chances, but ... grapefruit.
(H/T: Seattle Weekly)
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