Journeyman catcher Chris Gimenez is back for a third season with the Texas Rangers, his fourth team in eight major league seasons. But, he survived quite a scare in his offseason home in Reno, Nev., per Chris Murray of the Reno Gazette-Journal:
A couple of weeks ago, Gimenez was stuck in traffic while trying to get off on the freeway when a 36-pound drain grate came crashing through the cab of his truck, which nearly decapitated him.
"It sounded like a cannon went off," Gimenez said. "I looked to see what appears to be a yellow snow plow go by and all of a sudden glass is flying through the cab of my truck. I just instinctually ducked. It turns out a snow plow clipped a drain grate on the ground. It blew out the grate and the asphalt that went along with it, somehow flung it 150 feet away and it went through the cab of my truck.
"I was starting to think about it and if my truck isn’t lifted, I’m done. If I’m five feet further back, I’m screwed. What if that would have been the way I would have gone out? That wouldn’t have been cool."
Gimenez was unharmed, which is amazing.
In this week of pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training camps all over Arizona and Florida, Giminez now has the ultimate ice breaker to introduce himself to new teammates.