SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Brandon McCarthy does not wish to be known as that player who got hit in the head.
At least for now, though, it’s an identity he can’t escape. When last seen in a major league baseball game last Sept. 5, the right-hander — then with the Oakland Athletics — was struck in the head by a vicious line drive.
The results were as frightening as it gets for a pitcher — an epidural hemorrhage, brain contusion and skull fracture.
Now, cleared to return by the top expert in the field, he has begun spring training with his new team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he and the team seem much more concerned about his history of shoulder problems than with the after-effects of that scary day.