While umpiring a high school baseball game this afternoon, I got hit in the head by a line drive.

I'm lucky to be alive; could have easily killed me. In the milliseconds as it came off the bat, I knew it was going to come close to me. I was standing about 15 feet behind and to the right of the pitcher. If the ball was going 100 mph, it covered the 75 feet to me in less than half a second.

I started to turn and drop; I got my head down enough that, instead of hitting me in the face, it hit my forehead. I never lost consciousness as I went to me hands and knees, although blackness started to creep into my vision. I worked hard to mentally fight off the darkness. Coaches were there in seconds.

Thankfully, a paramedic had just arrived to watch the game. She had her kit with her. Not much she could do but stop the bleeding -- and there was a lot!

My oldest son happened to be working nearby, so he came to the field, then drove me to the hospital, which -- hindsight being 20/20, was stupid; should have called an ambulance. I got right into the ER. Nothing like a head wound or chest pains to eliminate time in the waiting room!

CT scan shows nothing, but as we know, a traumatic brain injury can take a while to manifest itself. Family is watching for signs of problems.

The wound, about 3 inches that had to be closed, took 12 stitches. There's another 2 inches of less severe cuts. Most of my scalp has swelling. I'm sure the bruise will be awesome. (Pictures will follow if anything good develops.)

My partner said the hit sounded like an explosion; he thought I was dead. Oddly, the pain was not bad; on a scale of 1-10, it was a 4 when it happened, by the time we got to the hospital it was a 2. My knee hurts worse than my head does.

Anyway, like we always hear, the end can come at any time, so be sure to hug your loved ones and have your personal accounts (and I don't mean monetary) settled each day.