Ironraven, I can't really say that I've rehearsed that situation. I guess my reflexes come from simply learning to read the baseball off the bat; after seeing thousands of hits it becomes easy to know where the ball is going. As soon as the batter contacted the ball, I knew the ball was going to come close to me.

Art, this incident opens me to all sorts of jokes. A few exmaples: Maybe it knocked some sense into you; did the CT scan proved you don't have a brain?; it couldn't have hurt your vision, you're already blind. If we can't laugh at ourselves, then we're taking ourselves too seriously.

Joost, sorry to hear about your uncle; my dad got hit by a Jeep a year ago. It knocked him down, skinned his arm -- he was lucky. If find that the older we get, the less we can bounce back from injuries.

Talking to the coaches over the weekend, they said I managed to move my head enough so that it hit me where it did -- rather than square between the eyes. Both coaches said they saw one of their worst fears when it hit me, and they knew I was dead.

My face started swelling last night, puffing up. My eyelids are starting to get dark red and droop. Cheeks, especially the one on my right side, are getting puffy.

But still, almost no pain. Took a shower this morning, scrubbed the wound lightly with a cloth; seemed to have loosened some hairs from the scabs so that the slight burning sensation I had is gone.

On Friday, I won the lottery of life. Unless there's some nasty brewing in my brain. Time will tell.