Forney's fine after getting baseball tat

TAKING one for the team is no problem for Winnipeg Goldeyes skipper Rick Forney and he's got the temporary tattoo to proove it.

Forney was hit by a foul ball off the bat of Goldeyes right-fielder Josh Mazzola in the third inning of Winnipeg's 5-3 win over the Sioux City Explorers at Shaw Park on Tuesday.

Forney was coaching third base, his usual post when the Goldeyes are at bat, when the ball spun off Mazzola's bat and struck Forney on his right arm, just beside the elbow. It hit him so hard he has the imprint of the ball's stitching on his arm.

On Wednesday as he sat in the Goldeyes' dugout before the game, Forney said he's never been hit by the ball in six previous seasons as Goldeyes manager and five-and-a-half as the team's pitching coach.

He said his attention had flashed away as he was swatting away some pesky wasps at the time and joked he would have easily jumped out of the way.

"I was the sixth grade dodgeball champ, that's what I've been telling everybody," Forney joked. "I've come close a few times but that's the first time I've been hit real hard. (If not for the wasps), I might have gotten out of the way, yeah."

Forney said it was all in a day's work.

"I didn't go to the doctor. If I couldn't move it this morning, I would have. I'd rather sleep," Forney said.

Mazzola went on to hit a double that scored Yurendell de Caster for a 4-2 Goldeyes lead.

"I don't think he would have been able to dodge that one, I got on it real quick," said Mazzola.

"I'm just glad it didn't hit him in the head or hit a fan."

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPAshleyPrest

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 30, 2012 D4